>yAND 


^ 
.y 


Yrj. 


C^x      -^C4-sfr%A^d 


-h 


aw/D 


? 


Tl^u  JF7^ 


inus-CA-j. 


»/x    '" 


-<r. 


°\ 


INNOCENCE 

AND 

IGNORANCE 


Innocence  and  Ignorance 


INNOCENCE 

AND 

IGNORANCE 


BY 

M.  S.  GILLET,  O.  P. 


TRANSLATED,    WITH     FOREWORD,     BY 

J.  ELLIOT  ROSS,  C.  S.  P.,  Ph.  D. 

LECTURER  IN  ETHICS  AT  NEWMAN  HALL,  UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS 


NEW  YORK 
THE   DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 


LOAN  STACK 

Copyright,  1017,  by 
THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 

Authorized  Translation 
All  rights  reserved  by  the  Devin- Adair  Co. 


40- 5-^ 
S-Si-2. 


TO 

D.  L.  M. 

MODEL  OF  PURITY  AND  TRUTH 

WHO  HAS  LIVED 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THIS  BOOK 

THIS  TRANSLATION  IS  DEDICATED 

AS  A  SLIGHT  TOKEN  OF  LOVE  AND  ESTEEM 


987 


Jlifnl  (Bbxtat 


Remigius  Lafort,  S.  T.  D. 

Censor 


imprimatur 


«£«John  Cardinal  Farley 

Archbishop  of  New  York 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword        .......        ix 

Preface  ........     xvii 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  Scientific  Method  and  Educating  to 
Purity:  Scientific  initiation  pure  and  sim- 
ple; insufficiency  of  all  intellectual  initia- 
tion; dangers  of  a  scientific  initiation 
properly  so  called         ....  3 

II.  Moral  Training  to  Purity  and  the  Scientific 
Method:  Moral  education  and  chastity; 
sexual  pedagogy;  moral  education  and  sci- 
entific initiation  .....        29 

III.  The  Method  of  Silence  and  the  Method  of 

Common  Sense:  The  method  of  silence 
for  training  to  purity;  reciprocal  influence 
of  nature  and  of  grace  in  training  to 
purity;  the  sentiment  of  modesty  in  edu- 
cating to  purity  .....       68 

IV.  Ignorance  of  To-day  and  Innocence  of  To- 

morrow: Social  facts  and  innocence;  in- 
definite knowledge  and  innocence  .  .      117 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   ^  PAGE 

V.  A  Tentative  Programme  of  Educating  to 
Purity  According  to  the  Common-sense 
Method:  Negative  education  in  purity 
and  the  social  sources  of  corruption; 
positive  education  in  purity — individual 
method ;  positive  education  in  purity — col- 
lective method    .  •         i.  .  .139 


FOREWORD 

Innocence  and  Ignorance — the  combina- 
tion may  be  tragic!  Some  months  ago  there 
came  to  my  attention  a  striking  illustration 
of  how  pitiable  may  be  the  consequences  of 
this  unfortunate  union.  A  young  woman  of 
eighteen  or  so,  educated  in  a  convent,  was 
persuaded  by  her  mother  to  marry  a  certain 
man  who  was  considered  in  society  to  be  in 
every  way  a  desirable  "catch."  What  was 
her  horror  to  find  what  marriage  really  meant 
— the  essence  of  the  contract  she  had  made  as 
an  act  of  filial  piety! 

After  months  of  bitter  degradation  with  a 
diseased  brute,  she  left  the  man  and  is  now 
supporting  herself  by  hard  work.  Had  she 
not  been  ignorant  as  well  as  innocent,  she 


x  FOREWORD 

would  never  have  entered  into  any  such  agree- 
ment with  any  man,  much  less  with  this  par- 
ticular one.  She  would  have  consecrated  her- 
self to  God  in  some  religious  community. 
Now  she  cannot.  Her  life  is  ruined.  Con- 
vents are  closed  to  her,  and  she  must  even 
bear  the  stigma  of  being  a  divorcee. 

This  is  an  unusual  case.  But  it  is  not  as 
unusual  as  many  will  suppose.  And  because 
it  is  not  as  unusual  as  it  should  be,  and  for 
other  reasons,  we  have  thought  it  wise  to  give 
to  the  American  public  this  work  by  an  emi- 
nent French  Dominican  on  a  topic  of  the 
greatest  importance — education  to  purity. 

Young  women  have  a  right  to  be  protected 
against  any  such  false  step  as  was  forced  upon 
this  innocent  girl  through  her  ignorance.  It 
was  not  the  less  false  that  it  was  sanctioned 
by  society's  laws.  For  it  is  a  crime,  compara- 
ble, perhaps,  only  to  actual  seduction,  to  al- 
low our  young  girls  to  enter  into  such  an 


FOREWORD  xi 

intimate  and  wide-reaching  relationship  with 
a  man  without  knowing  exactly  what  they  are 
doing.  The  consequences  are  too  grave  for 
themselves,  for  their  husbands,  and  for  the 
possible  children.  Love  may  be  blind,  but 
he  should  not  be  blindfolded  in  this  way. 

And  men,  too,  have  a  right  to  be  protected 
against  the  ignorance  of  women  in  such  mat- 
ters. More  matrimonial  infelicity  than  we 
shall  ever  know  is  caused  by  uncongeniality 
in  this  regard,  which  might  have  been  avoid- 
ed had  the  woman  /understood  beforehand 
what  would  be  expected  of  her.  She  may  re- 
sign herself  after  she  is  once  in  this  position, 
but  she  cannot  completely  hide  her  disgust, 
and  men  of  a  certain  temperament  will  be 
unsatisfied,  if  not  suspicious  and  jealous. 

On  the  other  hand,  young  men  or  young 
women  should  know,  to  some  extent,  what 
they  are  giving  up  if  they  become  priests  or 
religious.     Consecration  to   God  should  be 


xii  FOREWORD 

full  and  knowing.  There  should  be  no  vain 
regrets  aroused  by  knowledge  after  it  is  too 
late  honorably  to  change. 

These  considerations  argue  in  favor  of  tell- 
ing all  children  about  the  facts  of  life.  It 
might  be  wiser,  had  we  the  disposition  of  af- 
fairs, to  arrange  some  other  way  of  perpetu- 
ating the  human  race.  But  as  God  designed 
this  particular  and  only  method,  we  think  that 
young  people  growing  up  have  a  right  to 
know  of  it,  and  that  those  to  whom  they  are 
entrusted  have  the  duty  of  enlightening  them 
in  a  frank,  pure,  intelligent  way.  This  duty 
binds  even  in  the  case  of  those  who  might  be 
kept  in  ignorance.  All  children  should  be 
told,  for  the  reasons  that  we  have  stated. 

But  in  case  these  reasons  should  not  appear 
convincing  to  some  persons,  Abbe  Gillet  goes 
in  detail  into  another  and  clinching  argument. 
It  is  not,  he  shows,  a  question  of  keeping  chil- 
dren in  ignorance  of  sexual  facts  or  of  telling 


FOREWORD  xiii 

them  everything.  Rather  it  is  a  question  of 
who  shall  tell  them — vicious  companions  or 
pure,  truth-loving  lips  of  parents  or  educa- 
tors. He  effectually  punctures  the  theory, 
hugged  so  tightly  by  some  credulous  parents, 
that  the  average  child  can  for  very  long  in 
these  days  be  kept  in  ignorance  on  this  point. 
Between  the  street,  the  newspaper,  magazines, 
the  theatre,  the  "movies,"  companions,  picture 
galleries,  museums,  and  dozens  of  other  ave- 
nues that  arouse  and  satisfy  his  curiosity,  it 
is  quixotic  to  imagine  that  any  but  an  unusual 
child  will  long  remain  without  some  knowl- 
edge on  these  dangerous  and  inflammatory 
subjects. 

Some  children,  it  is  true,  will  go  through 
these  dangers  and  never  be  enlightened.  They 
will  have  eyes  and  see  not,  ears  and  hear  not. 
But  they  will  be  exceptions,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  tell  beforehand  which  they  will  be. 
It  is  a  certain  spirit  of  God  that  breatheth 


xiv  FOREWORD 

where  it  listeth,  and  the  child  who  possesses 
that  spirit  assuredly  will  not  be  hurt  by  a 
reasonable  explanation  from  his  mother's  lips. 
No  harm  will  be  done  in  enlightening  these 
children  in  the  attempt  to  safeguard  those  who 
need  knowledge. 

If,  then,  knowledge  is  ordinarily  bound  to 
come,  it  is  best  that  it  should  come  from  those 
interested  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  child. 
Abbe  Gillet,  therefore,  advocates  a  common- 
sense  explanation,  by  parents  or  teachers  or 
confessors,  that  will  be  adapted  to  the  indi- 
vidual child.  This  explanation  should  not  go 
into  scientific  details,  as  if  each  child  were 
a  student  of  gynecology;  it  should  not  be  col- 
lective; it  should  not  be  the  same  for  all, 
nor  always  given  at  the  same  age.  Because 
what  is  told,  and  how  it  is  told,  must  vary 
from  child  to  child. 

Abbe  Gillet  does  not  give  a  typical  initia- 
tion.   There  are  no  typical  cases.    Each  one 


FOREWORD  xv 

is  individual,  and  we  must  leave  to  the  good 
sense  of  the  parent,  or  other  person  charged 
with  the  education  of  the  child,  the  duty  of 
adapting  to  his  individual  needs  the  necessary 
information. 

And  accompanying  this  initiation  into  the 
mysteries  of  life,  there  should  be  a  well 
thought  out  moral  education  strengthening  the 
will  of  the  child  to  resist  the  allurements  of 
sense.  Prayer,  church-going,  the  Sacraments, 
must  all  conduce  to  this  end  of  building  char-  # 
acter.  Piety  and  religion  must  be  developed, 
not  pietism  or  religiosity. 

Abbe  Gillet,  the  author  of  this  excellent 
essay  on  training  in  purity,  is  an  eminent 
French  Dominican.  He  has  occupied  sev- 
eral important  and  responsible  positions  in 
his  Order  and  has  written  extensively  on  edu- 
cational subjects.  One  of  his  books,  The  Edu- 
cation of  Character,  has  recently  been  trans- 
lated into  English,  and  forms  a  worthy  sup- 


xvi  FOREWORD 

plement  to  the  present  important  topic.  After 
years  of  experience  as  a  teacher  and  a  con- 
fessor, he  speaks  with  authority  upon  this 
question. 

J.  Elliot  Ross,  C.S.P. 

The  Newman  Club,  University  of  Texas, 


PREFACE 

The  subject  of  training  in*  purity,  ap- 
proached from  the  Christian  point  of  view, 
presupposes  that  this  question  was  first  stated 
in  all  its  distinctness  by  our  Lord.  Princi- 
ples for  its  solution  are  contained  in  Scripture 
and  tradition,  and  no  new  conclusion  can  con- 
tradict these  principles.  Let  us  content  our- 
selves with  stating  them. 

It  is  certain,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
faith,  that  chastity  is  a  gift  of  God.  "I  knew 
that  I  could  not  otherwise  be  continent,  un- 
less God  gave  it."  1  We  receive  this  gift  upon 
the  day  of  our  Baptism,  together  with  sanc- 
tifying grace  and  all  infused  virtues;  we  re- 
cover it  by  Penance  when  in  the  course  of 
our  lives  we  have  had  the  misfortune  to  lose 
it.  St.  Paul  also  tells  us  that  chastity  is  a 
fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit.2 

But  how  can  we  preserve  and  develop  this 

xvii 


xviii  PREFACE 

supernatural  grace  of  continence?  Above  all, 
by  what  supernatural  means  of  the  same  or- 
der as  itself?  "Watch  and  pray,"  says  our 
Lord,  "lest  ye  enter  into  temptation;  for  the 
spirit  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak."  3  St. 
Peter  tells  us:  "Be  sober  and  watch,  for  your 
adversary  the  devil  goeth  about  like  a  roar- 
ing lion,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour."  4 

The  whole  Christian  tradition,  by  the  voice 
of  the  Fathers,  theologians,  mystics,  and  as- 
cetics, has  propounded  these  evangelical  and 
apostolic  principles  and  has  insisted  upon 
them.  Apart  from  these  principles,  no  train- 
ing in  purity  is  possible. 

But  if  it  be  beyond  doubt  that  chastity  is 
a  gift  of  God,  a  fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  if 
it  be  not  less  evident  that  without  prayer  and 
the  frequentation  of  the  Sacraments  we  can- 
not preserve  and  develop  this  delicate  flower 
of  purity;  yet  it  remains  to  determine  just 
in  what  precisely  consists  the  vigilance  recom- 
mended upon  this  point  by  our  Lord. 

In  the  first  place,  nothing  should  be  over- 
looked that  can  in  any  way  taint  chastity.    Its 


PREFACE  xix 

domain  extends  not  merely  to  impure  acts,  but 
to  words,  desires,  and  even  to  thoughts,  where 
impurity  has  its  origin.  Further,  our  vigil- 
ance should  be  the  greater  because  original 
sin  has  created  in  us  the  fire  of  concupiscence,  #r 
spoken  of  by  the  Fathers  and  the  Scriptures, 
by  reason  of  which  we  are  inclined  to  seek 
the  pleasures  of  the  flesh  at  the  expense  of  the 
joys  of  the  spirit. 

There  is  no  Christian  soul  so  holy  that, 
placing  its  trust  in  its  own  strength,  it  can 
ever  dispense  with  watchfulness  in  these  mat- 
ters. But  how  should  one  exercise  this  Chris- 
tian vigilance,  especially  over  children  who 
are  beginning  to  use  their  reason,  and  whose 
will,  although  supernaturalized  by  grace  and 
the  possession  of  a  divine  power  of  resisting 
the  suggestions  of  the  flesh,  has  not  yet  had 
time  fully  to  assimilate  this  force  by  a  cor- 
responding activity? 

Such  is  the  problem  presented  to-day  with 
greater  force  than  ever,  it  seems,  to  the  minds 
of  Catholic  educators  alive  to  their  respon- 
sibilities. 


xx  PREFACE 

We  hear  it  maintained  by  some  men  that 
the  Christian  tradition  is  useless,  that  knowl- 
edge is  completely  sufficient,  and  that  by  en- 
lightening children  at  an  early  age  about  the 
whole  subject  of  chastity  we  shall  make  them 
practise  this  virtue  and  avoid  the  contrary 
vice. 

But  nothing  is  more  false.  This  scientific 
method,  pure  and  simple,  of  initiation  is 
neither  Christian  nor  natural.  It  is  not  natu- 
ral because  the  experience  of  all  time  abun- 
dantly proves  that  it  is  not  enough  to  know 
the  good  in  order  to  do  it,  and  that  to  learn 
of  evil,  without  having  first  gained  by  appro- 
priate education  of  the  will  the  power  to  re- 
sist its  allurement,  is  to  put  one's  self  in  the 
proximate  occasion  of  falling.  But  particu- 
larly is  this  method  not  Christian;  for  it  at- 
tributes to  purely  human  means  a  preventive 
value  that  belongs  of  right  only  to  supernatu- 
ral means,  such  as  the  grace  of  God,  prayer, 
and  the  Sacraments.  All  Christian  psychol- 
ogists, from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  to  the 


PREFACE  xxi 

most   recent  ascetic  writers,   are   unanimous 
upon  this  point. 

It  can  even  be  asserted  without  fear  of  con- 
tradiction that  the  Christian  tradition  has  al- 
ways been  opposed  to  a  knowledge  of  such 
things  given  apart  from  the  proper  time,  place, 
and  person;  and  that  in  what  concerns  the 
training  of  children  in  purity,  it  prefers  igno- 
rance to  knowledge. 

Here,  however,  we  must  guard  against  all 
exaggeration  and  prejudiced  interpretations.        J* 

Two  rocks  are  to  be  avoided.    Under  pre-^/^ 
text  that  children  have  received  from  God  the 
grace  of  purity,  one  may  say:    "God's  grace 
is  sufficient,  and  there  is  no  danger  in  en- 
lightening children  at  a  tender  age  upon  a 
problem  as  delicate  and  complex  as  that  of 
chastity:   the   divine  strength  will   supplant 
their  human  weakness  in  the  face  of  such  reve- 
lations."   Or,  going  to  the  opposite  extreme,         £ 
some  one  else  may  say:    "Since  children  have  ^* 
received  from  God  the  supernatural  virtue  of  ™ 
chastity,  let  grace  work  in  them.     Take  no 
account  of  the  demands  of  their  nature ;  their 


/ 


xxii  PREFACE 

innocence  will  protect  them  and  they  will  de- 
velop under  the  safeguard  of  their  ignorance." 
The  truth  is  between  these  extremes,  and  to 
realize  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  reflect  that 
if  grace  perfects  our  nature,  it  does  not  sup- 
press it.  Indeed,  so  far  from  suppressing  it, 
grace,  on  the  contrary,  adapts  itself  to  na- 
ture's laws  in  order  to  assimilate  nature  and 
to  be  assimilated.  Grace  is  a  supernatural 
means  that  enables  nature  to  rise  above  itself 
without  ceasing  to  be  itself. 

Therefore  it  is  clear  that,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  morals,  the  education  of  the  will  of 
children  should  precede  that  of  the  intellect. 
This  is  especially  true  where,  as  in  the  case 
of  chastity,  knowledge  does  not  give  power, 
but  rather  weakens  the  will  if  it  is  not  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  resist  the  suggestions  of  the 
"knowledge  of  good  and  evil."  It  follows 
that,  just  so  far  as  the  will  of  a  child  has  not 
been  armed  by  a  complete  Christian  educa- 

^   tion  beginning  with  the  cradle  and  continued 
through  life,  ignorance  is  preferable  to  knowl- 

^    edge. 


y 


PREFACE  xxiii 

But  when  a  child's  will,  by  constant  super- 
natural action,  has  been  formed  to  resistance,    (hL4 

.  s 

does  it  follow  that  in  every  case  ignorance 

should  be  supplanted  by  knowledge?    The  re- 
ply to  this  question   is   not  theoretical,   but 
practical.     And  this  reply  is  the  subject  of  * 
this  book. 

We  shall  try  to  show,  in  the  light  of  the  ^ 
psychology  of  St.  Thomas,  that  in  every  case 
scientific  investigation,  whether  individual  or 
collective,  upon  matters  of  chastity  is  unneces- 
sary; and  that  in  each  case  it  is  dangerous, 
especially  on  account  of  the  technical  crudity 
and  universality  of  method,  that  does  not  take 
into  account  the  individual  and  relative  needs 
of  children. 

Further,  we  shall  endeavor  to  prove  that  ty 
systematic  ignorance,  which  on  its  side  takes 
no  notice  of  the  relative  and  individual  needs 
of  the  children,  no  matter  what  the  circum- 
stances, is  exposed  to  serious  miscalculations, 
especially  in  these  difficult  times  when  the 
dangers  of  a  vicious  initiation,  despite  all 
vigilance,  multiply  about  the  path  of  children. 


xxiv  PREFACE 

Finally,  our  idea  is  that,  in  the  field  of  pur- 
C)  ity,  the  natural  educators  of  the  child — his 
parents — or,  in  their  default,  those  upon  whom 
falls  the  care  of  his  soul,  ought  to  guard  his 
ignorance  in  so  far  as  his  will  is  not  suffi- 
ciently prepared  to  resist  the  movements  of 
the  flesh  that  may  come  from  a  precocious 
initiation;  but  we  think  that,  for  children 
who  have  enjoyed  a  complete  and  methodical 
Christian  education  of  the  will,  a  sensible  in- 
itiation ought  to  replace  ignorance,  whenever 
the  need  manifests  itself,  and  upon  the  ex- 
press condition  that  this  initiation  be  graded 
to  real  and  not  imaginary  needs,  having  in  each 
case  a  strictly  individual  character,  and  sup- 
plementing a  firm  Christian  education,  in 
which  supernatural  means  always  take  prece- 
dence of  purely  natural  ones. 

M.-S.  GlLLET,  O.P. 

1  Wisdom  vii,  21. 

2  Gal.  v,   23. 

3  Mark  xiv,  38. 

4  I  Pet.  v,  8. 


INNOCENCE 

AND 

IGNORANCE 


CHAPTER    I 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  METHOD  AND   EDUCATING  TO 
PURITY 

OF  the  educators  who  have  approached 
this  question  of  training  in  purity,  two 
classes  especially  claim  our  attention:  the  ad- 
vocates of  a  scientific  initiation  pure  and  sim- 
ple and  the  defenders  of  absolute  ignorance. 
We  believe  that  both  classes  have  assumed  an 
exclusive  and  irreconcilable  attitude  in  re- 
gard to  a  problem  particularly  remarkable 
for  its  complexity,  and  the  individual  and  col- 
lective solution  of  which  is  capable  of  an  in- 
finity of  shades.  This  will  appear  better  from 
the  exposition  we  shall  give  of  these  contra- 
dictory methods.  The  first  will  be  the  way 
of  "initiation." 


4   INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

/.     Scientific  Initiation  Pure  and  Simple 

Among  the  advocates  of  a  method  of  intel- 
lectual initiation  into  the  domain  of  purity, 
we  encounter  on  the  ground  floor,  as  it  were, 
the  defenders  of  a  scientific  initiation  pure 
and  simple,  individual  and  collective,  with- 
out distinction  of  age  or  sex.  It  is  true  that 
at  present  these  partisans  are  rare.  But  the 
cries  they  raise  about  their  method,  though 
doomed  to  impotence  by  their  radicalism,  are 
so  loud  that  they  force  themselves  upon  the 
attention  of  the  most  indifferent. 

According  to  Dr.  Doleris,  of  the  Academy 
of  Medicine,  training  in  purity  through  sci- 
ence is  the  "only  practical  and  legitimate" 
method.  He  sustained  this  thesis  in  a  report 
presented  in  August,  1910,  to  the  Third  Inter- 
national Congress  of  School  Hygiene,  and 
again  in  February,  191 1,  before  the  principal 
members  of  the  Societe  Franchise  de  Philoso- 
phic.1 

"Undoubtedly  we  should,"  he  writes,  "dis- 
tribute the  elements  of  this  education  accord- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE   5 

ing  to  age  and  environment,  the  gradation  fol- 
lowing the  development  of  reason  and  in- 
terest"; but  the  ideal  is  "to  initiate  ahead  of 
instinct,  so  as  to  leave  no  room  for  surprise  and 
fear  when  the  organs  manifest  their  vitality 
and  the  senses  and  imagination  awaken  on  ac- 
count of  these  manifestations."  2 

But  who  should  give  this  scientific  teaching? 
Notwithstanding  its  antiquity  and  the  senti- 
mental reasons  in  its  favor,  Dr.  Doleris  does 
not  believe  in  the  efficiency,  or  even  the  prac- 
tical possibility,  of  family  education.  "I  be- 
lieve that  we  shall  easily  agree,"  he  declares, 
"if,  completely  recognizing  t?he  theoretical 
possibility  of  an  excellent  sexual  education  by 
the  family  method,  we  remark  that  to  give  it 
would  require  reflective,  intelligent,  culti- 
vated, and  competent  parents.  That  this  con- 
dition is  not  fulfilled  in  the  majority  of  fam- 
ilies cannot  readily  be  denied,  and  the  reason 
for  this  is  understood."  3  • 

Since  family  education,  therefore,  is  prac- 
tically impossible,  school  education  must  be 
substituted;  and  for  scientific  individual  ini- 


6  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

tiation  we  must  have  scientific  collective  ini- 
tiation. And  how  should  the  instructors, 
qualified  to  give  this  scientific  and  collective 
teaching  in  the  schools,  go  about  their  task? 
"The  point  is,  then,  by  the  early  teaching  of 
the  natural  sciences  (which  should  be  a  pri- 
mary element  of  the  new  education),  to  accus- 
tom children  to  the  phenomena  of  generation, 
to  make  them  observe  them  first  in  regard  to 
plants,  and  afterwards  in  animals."  4  And  Dr. 
Doleris  thinks  that  there  is  no  objection  to  the 
smallest  child  being  initiated  into  the  less  tech- 
nical details  of  such  an  education. 

Is  this  all?  Of  course  not.  We  must  join 
to  this  early  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences 
"some  distractions  and  occupations  that  tire 
the  body  while  at  the  same  time  opening  up 
perspectives  of  activity  and  will-power.  In 
short,  it  naturally  implies  giving  a  large  place 
to  hygiene."  5 

Natural  sciences,  sports,  hygiene — behold, 
according  to  a  contemporary  medical  author- 
ity, the  essentials  of  the  new  way  of  training  to 
purity! 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE   7 

But  what  of  moral  education,  properly  so 
called?  some  one  may  ask.  Dr.  Doleris  does 
not  attach  much  importance  to  this,  since  it 
concerns  abnormal  children.  For  those  un- 
stable natures  in  whom  a  precise  knowledge 
of  things  hardly  inspires  a  clear,  simple,  and 
natural  conception  of  the  sexual  life  (but  who, 
doubtless,  are  rather  numerous),  "it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  a  solid  moral  education,  which 
alone  is  capable  of  protecting  them  against 
certain  temptations."  6 

For  normal  children — by  definition  the  ma- 
jority— the  scientific  initiation  suffices.  Dr. 
Doleris  does  not  forbid  completing  this  by 
moral  education;  but  he  has  more  confidence 
in  athletics  than  in  moral  counsels. 

This  theory  has  at  least  one  merit — that  it 
is  stated  frankly  and  clearly.  But,  in  the  light 
of  a  sane  psychology  of  childhood,  what  value 
has  it?  Let  us  say  at  once  that  even  in  the 
Societe  Franchise  de  Philosophie,  where  it 
was  presented,  this  theory  found  no  echo. 
Neither  M.  Durkheim,  nor  M.  Bureau,  nor 
M.  Parode,  nor  M.  Malapert,  nor  M.  Luto- 


8   INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

slawski,  who  took  part  in  the  discussion, 
agreed  with  the  radical  conclusion  of  Dr. 
Doleris. 

Doubtless  their  own  views  on  this  delicate 
subject  should  be  examined  cautiously,  as  we 
shall  soon  see.  But  the  point  is  that  they  all 
reject  the  scientific  method,  pure  and  sim- 
ple, of  initiation  as  inefficient  and  dangerous. 
And  in  this  they  are  evidently  correct. 

Why?    Let  us  show  briefly. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  pretended  that 
to  give  moral  value  to  the  practice  of  chas- 
tity no  previous  knowledge  of  the  general  ob- 
ject of  this  virtue  is  needed.  Chastity  does 
not  escape,  in  its  practice,  the  essential  laws 
of  human  activity.  Nothing  is  willed  that  is 
not  known,  says  the  Proverb;  and  it  speaks 
truly.  We  can  will  nothing  in  a  human  way 
— that  is  to  say,  freely — without  knowledge; 
and  the  moral  value  of  our  voluntary  acts  de- 
pends in  a  certain  measure  upon  the  knowl- 
edge which  accompanies  them.  This,  preserv- 
ing due  proportion,  is  just  as  true  of  children 
as  of  mature  men;  and  the  law  applies  just 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE   9 

as  well  to  chastity  as  to  any  other  virtue.  Par- 
ticularly and  always  we  assert  that  knowledge 
is  a  condition  of  morality,  or,  if  one  prefers, 
of  liberty  of  our  acts.  Not,  indeed,  scientific 
knowledge,  strictly  speaking  (since  I  am  op- 
posed to  that) ,  but  at  least  the  general  knowl- 
edge which  insures  the  substantial  value  of 
every  human  act,  and  permits,  without  enter- 
ing into  any  technical  detail  proper  to  the  vir- 
tue of  chastity,  advertence  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  question  of  this  virtue  and  of  no 
other. 

How,  then,  can  children,  arrived  at  the  age 
of  reason,  practise  chastity,  and  acquire  this 
virtue  positively  and  gradually,  if  they  have 
no  idea,  even  general,  of  the  object  with  which 
it  is  concerned;  if,  for  example,  they  do  not 
suspect  that  there  are  certain  thoughts,  cer- 
tain desires,  certain  acts,  from  which,  for  love 
of  God,  they  should  abstain? 

One  can  doubtless  explain  how,  by  the  help 
of  ignorance,  exceptional  children,  and  even 
older  persons,  have  preserved  their  "inno- 
cence."   One  may  even  ask  if  the  maintenance 


no    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

of  this  conserving  ignorance  for  the  longest 
time  possible  would  not  be  preferable  to  all 
intellectual  initiation,  no  matter  how  sooth- 
ing? For  scarcely  any  one  denies  the  danger 
in  these  inflammable  matters. 

This  is  a  question  to  which  we  shall  return, 
for  it  deserves  discussion.  But  for  the  time 
being  this  is  not  the  point.  We  are  concerned 
with  finding  out  only  whether  the  acquisition 
or  development  of  the  natural  virtue  of  chas- 
tity is  or  is  not  conditioned  by  a  knowledge, 
at  least  general,  of  the  object  of  this  virtue. 

Now  who  will  dare  to  pretend  that  chastity 
enjoys  an  absolutely  special  privilege;  that 
it  is  not  at  all  subject  to  the  fundamental 
laws  of  human  activity;  and  that  the  will  can, 
upon  this  extremely  delicate  point,  direct  the 
sensibility  without  itself  being  orientated  by 
a  certain  knowledge,  just  as  attenuated  as  you 
wish,  of  the  end  to  be  realized  and  the  means 
to  be  employed?  The  will  by  its  nature  is 
blind,  as  are  all  the  instincts.  If  it  must  di- 
rect its  efforts  in  a  given  objective  direction, 
such   as   chastity,   and   by   the   repetition   of 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  n 

proper  and  determined  acts  get  the  habit  of 
naturally  acting  in  that  way,  which  is  the 
characteristic  of  every  acquired  virtue,  it  is 
very  necessary  that  there  should  be  some 
knowledge  of  the  object,  although  this  knowl- 
edge be  reduced  to  the  minimum. 

I  know  very  well  that  some  educators  speak 
of  an  innocence  preserved  by  ignorance,  and 
I  do  not  contradict  them.  But  this  negative 
innocence  has  nothing  in  common  with  posi- 
tive innocence  begotten  in  the  acquired  virtue 
of  chastity.  Here  I  merely  allude  to  this. 
I  shall  explain  its  mechanism  later,  in  show- 
ing the  important  role  it  plays  in  the  develop- 
ment even  of  the  infused  or  supernatural  vir- 
tues.7 

One  thing  more.  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
propose  to  decide  whether  it  is  better,  from 
the  educational  point  of  view,  to  prefer  nega- 
tive innocence,  founded  on  ignorance,  to  posi- 
tive innocence,  requiring  a  previous  intellec- 
tual "initiation."  I  merely  contend  that  it  is 
a  mistake  to  confound  these  two  things,  and 
that  in  case  one  has  decided  to  teach  children 


12    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

who  have  reached  the  age  of  reason  to  prac- 
tise the  virtue  of  chastity,  he  cannot  leave 
them  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  object  of 
this  virtue. 

Upon  this  point  I  am  in  agreement  with 
Dr.  Doleris,  and  probably  with  all  psycholo- 
gists, but  upon  this  point  only.  For  I  do  not 
grant  that  intellectual  initiation  in  this  mat- 
ter, less  even  than  in  any  other,  has  by  itself 
an  educational  value,  and  that  this  initiation 
ought  necessarily  to  be  scientific. 

On  the  contrary,  I  hope  to  prove  that  all 
intellectual  initiation,  in  big  or  little  doses, 
is  by  itself  insufficient,  and  that  particularly 
the  scientific  initiation  which  does  not  appeal 
to  a  strong  moral  education  will  be  not  only 
insufficient,   but  dangerous. 

II.     Insufficiency  of  all  Intellectual  Initiation 

It  is  a  long  while  since  Socrates  first  main- 
tained that  the  practice  of  good  is  connected 
with  our  knowledge  as  effect  to  cause.  But, 
since  then,  experience  has  contradicted  this 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    13 

theory.  Practically,  indeed,  "the  better"  does 
not  determine  us,  and  virtue  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  determination  of  our  will  by 
the  realizing  of  "the  better"  as  understood  by 
Leibnitz. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Encyclope- 
dists brought  back,  in  a  metaphysical  form, 
this  brilliant  doctrinal  paradox.  Ideologists, 
they  denied  that  customs  react  upon  laws,  and 
maintained  that  it  pertained  to  laws  to  reform 
morals;  that  it  is  sufficient  to  cut  off  or  add 
a  few  statutes  to  change  at  one  stroke  the 
moral  appearance  of  a  people. 

One  of  them,  Helvetius — the  most  naive,  we 
must  grant — has  even  inquired  if  the  differ- 
ences between  the  individuals  of  the  human 
race  do  not  prove  a  difference  in  the  instruc- 
tion received;  and  he  asks  if  virtues,  like  phi- 
losophy or  mathematics,  cannot  be  taught.  Per- 
haps one  would  be  tempted  to  believe  that  our 
modern  society,  so  stricken  with  experiences, 
has  made  short  work  of  such  Utopias.  Unfor- 
tunately, it  has  done  nothing  of  the  sort.  In 
the  majority  of  our  universities,  and  elsewhere 


H  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

also,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  it  is  still  im- 
agined that  moral  education  can  be  accom- 
plished with  text-books  and  some  precepts 
learned  by  heart.  Let  the  advocates  of  such 
theories  read  on  this  subject  the  excellent  work 
of  M.  Delvolve  on  the  two  types  of  educa- 
tion most  in  vogue  to-day:  the  religious  type 
and  the  secular  type.8  They  will  see  with 
what  force  he  denounces  the  exclusively  in- 
tellectual character  and  inefficiency  of  the 
secular  class. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  rather  generally  accept- 
ed opinion  among  secular  educators — at  least 
an  analysis  of  official  texts  relative  to  moral 
teaching  allows  us  to  affirm  this — that  the  es- 
sential function  of  the  educational  doctrine 
is  to  determine  particular  duties,  to  propose 
them  with  precision,  scientifically  to  justify 
them  by  deducing  from  their  only  objective 
some  abstract  rules  of  conduct,  without  de- 
manding a  foundation,  more  or  less  exterior, 
for  duty  itself,  a  motive  capable  of  determin- 
ing the  will  and,  through  it,  of  acting  upon 
the  senses. 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    15 

What  has  moral  education,  thus  defined  in 
its  doctrines  and  methods,  given  for  practical 
application?  M.  Delvolve  asserts  that  it  has 
afforded  a  certain  disillusionment,  and  one 
perceives  under  his  fearless  though  reserved 
pen  the  big  word  "failure." 

No ;  it  does  not  suffice  to  know  good  in  or- 
der to  practise  it,  nor  to  enunciate  rules  based 
on  mere  scientific  assertions  in  order  effica- 
ciously to  influence  conduct.  To  the  moral 
rule  which  enlightens  the  intellect  it  is  neces- 
sary to  join  the  moral  motive  which  moves  the 
will,  and  through  it  bring  the  senses  into  sub- 
jection. Doubtless  the  idea  expressed  in  a 
rule  inclines  towards  the  act  as  indicating  the 
course  to  follow;  but  it  belongs  to  the  will, 
under  the  decisive  influence  of  a  motive,  to 
place  itself  in  line  for  the  realization  of  the 
idea.  The  idea  seen  must  become  an  idea 
willed;  the  intellectual  concept  must  become  a 
moving  force.  Now  this  can  only  happen  by 
the  will  assimilating  the  idea,  and  in  this 
process,  giving  it  the  force  for  thus  acting,  it 
is  necessary  to  assimilate  the  rule  in  question 


16    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

and  strictly  to  subordinate  one's  conduct  to  it. 
The  contribution  of  voluntary  feeling  is,  in 
this  sense,  much  more  important  than  intel- 
lectual initiation,  no  matter  in  what  degree. 
I  add  that  in  all  that  concerns  the  practice 
of  chastity,  the  education  of  the  will  is  far 
preferable  to  the  education  of  the  intellect. 
Of  what  are  we  talking,  indeed,  if  not  of 
keeping  the  senses  within  the  bounds  of  al- 
lowable satisfaction?  Certainly,  satisfaction 
of  this  kind  is  lawful  in  marriage.  But,  out- 
side of  marriage,  no  one  can  maintain,  in  the 
name  of  science  and  experience,  that  a  nor- 
mal individual — that  is,  one  in  possession  of 
his  liberty — is  ever  overcome  despite  himself 
by  the  impulses  of  a  physiological  instinct. 
This  instinct  is  not  a  need,  in  a  strict  sense  of 
the  word,  but  merely  an  aptitude.  One  can 
even  show  in  support  of  this  position  that  its 
genesis  is  not  physiological,  but  psychic.  The 
imagination  plays  a  much  greater  role  than  the 
senses.  Now  this  observation  is  important, 
and  fraught  with  consequences  for  the  point 
of  view  we  hold. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE     17 

Indeed,  if  the  sexual  instinct,  in  what  con- 
cerns the  pleasure  attached  to  its  exercise,  is 
nourished  especially  by  the  imagination,  can 
one  understand  how  training  in  purity  ought 
to  consist  entirely  in  a  scientific  initiation 
which  has  for  its  effect  precisely  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  imagination,  of  filling  it  with  im- 
ages capable  of  feeding  this  instinct  by  ex- 
citing the  senses? 

For  we  should  not  forget  that  every  emotion 
which  penetrates  the  field  of  consciousness  in- 
clines to  the  corresponding  act  so  long  as  no 
obstacle  intervenes.  But  where  can  we  find 
an  obstacle  in  the  hypothesis  of  a  scientific  in- 
itiation pure  and  simple  such  as  is  proposed 
by  Dr.  Doleris  to  the  exclusion  of  the  moral 
education  of  the  will?  Are  the  senses,  then, 
directly  subject  to  the  intellect,  without  the 
entrance  of  the  will?  And  will  the  fact  of 
showing  to  the  eyes  of  children  all  the  details 
of  the  practice  of  purity  be,  without  anything 
else,  a  direct  safeguard  for  their  innocence? 
What  simplicity! 

I  understand  very  well  that  one  may  seek 


1 8  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

in  sports  and  hygiene  a  counterpoise  to  the 
possibility  of  excitement  coming  from  such 
an  exposition,  and  that  one  should  at  the  same 
time  denounce  to  children  the  dangers  of 
incontinence.  But  we  should  not  forget,  mean- 
while, what  Foerster  remarks,  that  all  teaching 
of  this  kind  reveals  not  only  dangers  but  pleas- 
ures also,  and  that  to  renounce  the  pleasures 
it  is  necessary  to  possess  not  only  a  sufficiently 
instructed  intellect,  but  a  sufficiently  strong 
will.9 

Now,  a  strong  will  is  not  simply  a  matter  of 
athletics  and  hygiene.  Even  the  fear  of  the 
dangers  that  misbehavior  contains  may  disap- 
pear completely  through  the  hope  of  escap- 
ing them,  by  all  sorts  of  means,  if  the  imagina- 
tion be  gripped.  In  certain  regiments,  upon 
the  arrival  of  recruits,  the  major  is  called  upon 
to  initiate  them,  without  sparing  their  feel- 
ings, into  the  dangers  to  which  they  expose 
themselves  if  they  indulge  in  sexual  pleasures. 
Nine  times  out  of  ten — and  I  am  not  sure  that 
there  are  any  exceptions,  or,  if  there  are,  that 
they^  are  due  to  this  official  warning — nine 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    19 

times  out  of  ten  the  recruits  seek  out  the  pleas- 
ure, after  being  previously  informed  as  to 
the  means  of  avoiding  the  danger.  The  mere 
hope  of  the  pleasure  that  has  been  revealed  to 
them,  without  taking  care  to  strengthen  their 
wills,  has  captivated  them. 

To  make  a  will  strong  there  is  required  an 
appropriate  moral  education;  that  is,  an  edu- 
cation embracing  powerful  motives  for  resist- 
ing the  attraction  of  the  senses  and  a  methodi- 
cal training  of  the  will.  This  is  why,  I  repeat 
(and  I  shall  return  to  it  again),  the  education 
of  the  will  in  the  field  of  chastity  is  far  prefer- 
able to  the  education  of  the  intellect.  Abso- 
lutely speaking,  it  ought  to  precede;  after- 
wards, when  there  is  question  of  an  intellectual 
initiation  of  children  in  these  matters,  it  ought 
always  to  accompany. 

Ill,     Dangers  of  a  Scientific  Initiation  prop- 
erly so  called 

To  avoid  the  dangers  that  I  am  going  to 
point  out  in  a  scientific  initiation  pure  and 


20    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

simple,  excluding  moral  education,  Dr.  Do- 
leris  thinks  he  can  range  children  in  two 
classes — the  normal  and  the  abnormal,  the  ma- 
jority and  the  exceptions.  The  abnormal 
would  be  "those  unstable  natures  in  whom  the 
precise  knowledge  of  the  facts  cannot  inspire 
a  clear,  simple,  natural  view  of  sexual  life. 
For  these  abnormal  children  (certainly  rather 
numerous),  I  add,  there  is  needed  above  all  a 
solid  moral  education,  which  alone  is  capable 
of  preserving  them  from  certain  tempta- 
tions." 10 

But  if  one  denies  the  distinction  and  proves 
that  so  far  as  concupiscence  is  concerned  we 
are  all  abnormal,  what  becomes  of  the  thesis 
of  scientific  initiation?  It  falls  of  itself .  Now, 
in  fact,  we  are  all  here  abnormal;  that  is, 
appealing  to  reason  and  to  faith,  we  are  all 
born  with  an  "unstable"  nature,  incapable  of 
resisting,  without  the  help  of  a  naturally,  or 
rather  supernaturally,  strengthened  will,  the 
attractions  of  sense. 

This,  then,  is  what  must  be  established  in 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    21 

order  to  undermine  the  scientific  method,  pure 
and  simple,  of  initiation. 

First,  let  us  consult  reason. 

The  primary  point  that  strikes  one  upon 
approaching  this  question  of  training  to  purity 
is  the  mysterious  and  sacred  character  envelop- 
ing it.  If  we  are  concerned,  for  instance,  with 
the  problem  of  alcoholism  and  some  analogous 
crime,  we  do  not  take  the  same  precautions. 

Why  this  difference  of  attitude? 

Dr.  Doleris  announces  this  axiom,  that  the 
mysterious  character  attributed  by  public 
opinion  and  by  religious  faiths  to  all  that  con- 
cerns the  "secret  chapter"  is  nothing  but  a 
mere  prejudice  in  no  way  corresponding  with 
the  reality.11 

However,  as  M.  Durkheim,  whose  author- 
ity is  very  weighty  in  these  matters,  remarks, 
"if  this  is  a  survival,  it  is  a  survival  from  a 
singularly  distant  past,  and  of  customs  peculi- 
arly tenacious."  But  when  a  universal  sen- 
timent is  persistently  affirmed  through  the 
whole  course  of  history,  we  can  be  sure  that  it 
is  founded  on  fact.     Ideas  of  such  generality 


22    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

cannot  be  due  merely  to  an  aberration  or  to 
a  deceit  practised  upon  mankind  for  centuries. 

Now  it  is  remarkable  that  not  only  the 
Catholic  religion,  but  the  most  primitive  and 
the  most  gross  religions  are  unanimous  in  con- 
sidering the  domain  of  chastity  as  a  field  re- 
served, and  the  acts  relative  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  race  as  important,  solemn,  reli- 
gious. It  would  not  enter  the  mind,  there- 
fore, of  a  well-informed  psychologist  to  treat 
them  flippantly,  and  to  see  in  the  sentiment 
of  modesty  which  accompanies  them  merely 
a  prejudice  of  religious  education. 

What,  then,  does  this  ancient  and  universal 
sentiment  teach? 

It  teaches  the  social  importance  of  these 
acts  that  it  envelops  with  mystery.  The  ac- 
complishment of  these  acts,  and  the  pleasure 
attaching  to  them,  pass  far  beyond  individual 
limits.  Consequently,  one  may  ask  if  the  mere 
idea  of  these  acts  and  of  the  unique  pleasure 
which  they  cause  does  not  place  the  individ- 
uals in  a  state  of  manifest  inferiority  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  resistance  they  are 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    23 

bound  to  oppose  to  them  outside  of  certain 
legal  conditions  where  their  accomplishment 
and  seeking  are  lawful? 

For  if  it  is  understandable  that  an  indi- 
vidual resist  the  pleasure  of  intoxication  or 
of  suicide,  which  are  individual  pleasures 
clearly  immoral,  it  is  less  to  ask  that  he  con- 
tinually defend  himself  against  the  attraction 
of  a  pleasure  to  which  nature  has  attached 
an  unequalled  intensity  and  a  wonderful  so- 
cial mission,  since  it  is  capable  of  assuring  the 
perpetuity  of  the  race  against  designs  of  the 
sensual  egoism  of  its  members. 

I  repeat,  in  the  name  of  science  and  experi- 
ence, that  the  physiological  instinct  to  which 
these  acts  and  this  pleasure  correspond  is  not 
a  need,  in  the  root  sense  of  the  word,  but  sim- 
ply an  aptitude;  in  other  words,  it  is  possible 
for  a  young  man  to  guard  absolute  chastity 
without  blemish.  But  this  is  on  condition  that 
his  will  be  in  a  state  to  resist  the  idea  of  sen- 
sual pleasure,  by  the  aid  of  motives  stronger 
even  than  this  pleasure,  and  by  an  appropri- 
ate moral  gymnastic.     Now,  is  this  the  case 


24    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

with  children  and  young  people  whose  scien- 
tific initiation  has  advanced  faster  than  the 
education  of  the  will? 

It  would  be  childish  to  deny  that  their  age 
and  their  explosive  sensibility  place  them  in 
a  condition  of  notable  inferiority.  Not  having 
had  the  time  to  acquire  strength  of  will  by 
reflection  and  exercise,  scientific  initiation 
pure  and  simple  risks  delivering  them,  bound 
hand  and  foot,  to  the  attractions  of  sense. 
They  all,  under  this  head,  belong  to  the  "ab- 
normal," in  that  a  clear,  detailed,  and  tech- 
nical conception  of  the  mechanism  of  sense 
will  not  alone  guarantee  them  against  falls. 

What  more  is  to  be  said  of  a  theory  that  de- 
liberately discards  moral  education  and  be- 
lieves in  the  sovereign  efficacy  of  a  scientific 
initiation?  It  condemns  itself,  because  it  en- 
visages only  the  "normal"  children,  while, 
from  the  point  of  view  we  take,  they  all — 
except  a  few  privileged  temperaments  and 
up  to  a  certain  point — are  abnormal. 

Moreover,  crowds  of  facts  support  the 
teaching  of  reason.     For  how  otherwise  can 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    25 

we  explain  the  number  of  "falls"  among  chil- 
dren, and  young  people,  and  well-informed 
men,  than  by  stating  that  to  resist  the  sensual 
attraction  they  need  a  well-armed  will  de- 
votedly attached  to  a  higher  ideal  of  life  and 
trained  to  duty  by  persevering  exercise? 

Whatever  it  be,  we  Catholics  have  no  right 
to  hesitate  on  this  point.  Our  faith  makes  us 
believe  that  in  the  matter  of  concupiscence  all 
of  us,  without  exception,  are  abnormal,  and 
this  by  heredity,  in  virtue  of  the  original  sin 
of  our  first  parents  that  has  been  transmitted 
to  us  and  has  been  re-echoed  even  in  nature 
itself. 

Not  only  do  we  not  enjoy  the  privileged 
state  of  innocence  in  which  they  were  cre- 
ated, but  we  inherit  the  instability  of  moral 
forces  that  was  the  result  of  their  fall.  We 
come  into  the  world  with  this  wound,  a  little 
like  (keeping  due  proportion)  to  those  chil- 
dren whom  neither  age  nor  the  vicissitudes  of 
life  have  had  time  to  corrupt,  but  who,  vic- 
tims of  paternal  misconduct,  carry  upon  their 
foreheads    the    stigma    of    vice.      By    their 


26    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

troubled  and  hesitating  look  they  proclaim  a 
physiological  defect  that  makes  it  harder  for 
them  to  exercise  their  liberty. 

Try  as  you  will,  my  readers,  you  will  never 
succeed  in  explaining,  apart  from  the  doc- 
trine of  original  sin  and  its  transmission  of 
heredity,  how  so  many  men  encounter  such 
difficulties  in  leading  a  truly  human  life,  in 
resisting  the  animal  impulses.  At  least  you 
will  meet  mysteries  much  more  troublesome 
than  those  of  original  sin.  For  you  must  ex- 
plain how,  side  by  side  with  those  who  wal- 
low shamelessly  in  the  mire  and  almost  make 
us  doubt  the  educative  value  of  the  human 
ideal,  there  are  thousands  who  in  wisdom  and 
morality  even  surpass  the  human  ideal. 

You  must  tell  us  why  so  many  martyrs, 
apostles,  and  virgins  preferred  death  to  any 
surrender  of  conscience.  For  they  were  made 
of  the  same  clay  as  the  others.  The  flame  of 
bad  desires  encircled  their  hearts  and  excited 
their  flesh.  Many  even  among  them  ascended 
so  high  only  to  fall  the  lower.  Now  I  defy 
you  to  assert  and  prove  that  to  accomplish 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    27 

such  results  it  was  sufficient  to  be  scientifically 
initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  sense.  This 
mere  initiation,  if  it  be  exclusive,  would  suf- 
fice to  explain  the  fall  and  misconduct  of 
the  others.  For  is  it  not  St.  Paul  who  has 
said  (evidently  in  a  relative  sense)  that  if  the 
law  had  not  been  revealed  to  the  world,  man 
would  not  have  sinned? 

The  knowledge  of  the  law,  the  scientific  in- 
itiation, by  themselves  will  avail  nothing.  It 
should  be  added  that  it  is  the  education  of 
the  will,  of  which  Christianity  holds  the  se- 
cret in  furnishing  the  will  itself  with  the  most 
powerful  motives  for  action  and  the  grace 
which  permits  the  assimilation  of  these  divine 
motives,  in  a  vital  way,  by  means  of  charity, 
that  brings  the  senses  into  subjection,  sows 
the  seeds  of  divine  virtues,  and  makes  to  en- 
ter into  the  soul  even  the  slightest  rustling 
of  the  purifying  breath  of  ideal  Beauty. 

1  Bulletin    de    la    Societe    Franchise    de    Philosophic, 
fevrier,  191 1,  pp.  29,  99. 
2M,p.  31. 
3/^p.  30. 


28    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

4/^,p.  31. 

5  Id.,  p.  32. 

6  Id.,  p.  32. 

7  To  simplify  the  discussion,  we  confine  ourselves  here 
to  the  natural  virtues,  reserving  the  privilege  to  speak 
later  on  of  the  supernatural  virtues  and  of  the  laws  of 
their  normal  development.  It  will  be  clear  then  why  this 
division   is  legitimate. 

8  Delvolve,  Rationalisme  et  Tradition,  Paris,  Alcan, 
1910. 

9  Foerster,  L'iEcole  et  le  Caractere,  pp.  61  et  seq. 

10  Bulle/tin  de  la  Societe  Franchise  de  Philosophic, 
fevrier,   191 1,  p.  31. 

11  Id, 


CHAPTER    II 

MORAL  TRAINING  TO  PURITY  AND  THE  SCIEN- 
TIFIC  METHOD 

SCIENTIFIC  initiation,  pure  and  simple 
(that,  namely,  which  rejects  moral  educa- 
tion as  a  useless  appendage),  though  naturally 
non-moral,  is  destined  practically  to  become 
immoral.  We  trust  that  we  have  enlarged  suf- 
ficiently upon  this  point  and  shown  the  neces- 
sity of  a  strong  moral  education. 

There  is  no  reason,  indeed,  why  we  should 
not  indicate  to  children  in  general  terms  the 
road  to  follow  in  regard  to  purity,  if  at  the 
same  time  we  arm  their  wills  to  take  it.  Now, 
experience  teaches — and  faith  on  this  point 
reinforces  the  teaching  of  experience — that 
the  wills  of  children  are  not  naturally  pre- 
pared to  walk  without  risk  or  weakness  in  a 
sphere    so    dangerous.      The    fire   of    concu- 

29 


30    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

piscence  that  smoulders  in  them  on  their  en- 
trance into  this  world,  and  the  species  of  moral 
instability  that  is  its  consequence,  place  them 
in  a  condition  of  manifest  weakness  to  main- 
tain themselves  without  effort  at  the  height  of 
a  teaching  that  indicates  not  only  dangers  but 
also  pleasures.  And  the  pleasures  are  such 
that  the  prospect  of  dangers  accompanying 
them  is  not  capable,  by  itself,  of  destroying 
their  power  of  suggestion. 

This  is  something  that  educators,  careful  of 
their  responsibility,  should  not  lose  sight  of 
when  they  speak  of  calling  the  attention  of 
children  to  a  particularly  animal  side  of  their 
nature.  Before  enlightening  children,  how- 
ever this  be  done,  educators  should  strive 
especially  to  give  them  the  necessary  strength. 
Side  by  side  with  the  rule  that  illumines  the 
intellect  should  come  the  motive  that  grips 
the  will  and  makes  it,  by  a  methodical  and 
sustained  action,  submit  to  the  requirements 
of  the  rule  and  enables  it  to  conquer  the  senses. 

Most  educators,  both  secular  and  religious, 
now  admit  this.     But  all  do  not  understand 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    31 

it  in  the  same  way.  The  advocates  of  a  sci- 
entific initiation  are  almost  all  of  the  opinion 
that  this  initiation  necessarily  demands  a 
strong  parallel  moral  education.  But  they 
are  far  from  agreeing  upon  the  educative 
value  of  the  motives  called  in  to  train  the 
will  and  to  assure,  by  a  persuasive  gymnastic, 
its  domination  over  the  senses.  Hence  I  wish 
in  the  following  pages  to  prove  against  secu- 
lar educators  that  to  be  effective,  moral  edu- 
cation ought  to  be  religious;  and,  against  cer- 
tain Catholic  educators,  that  an  education, 
properly  speaking  scientific,  is  not  always  a 
necessary  condition  for  this  effectiveness. 

7.     Moral  Education   and   Chastity;  Sexual 
Pedagogy 

At  the  outset  one  may  ask  how  it  is  possible 
that  some  men,  otherwise  very  intelligent,  at- 
tribute so  little  importance  to  moral  educa- 
tion in  such  a  delicate  field  as  chastity,  yet 
believe  in  the  omnipotence  of  science.  One's 
astonishment  at  such  a  phenomenon  dimin- 


32    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

ishes  when  he  learns  that  the  decided  par- 
tisans of  a  scientific  initiation  pure  and  sim- 
ple are  almost  all  physicians. 

The  psychology  of  physicians  (at  least  of 
those  who  look  upon  medicine  as  more  of  a 
science  than  an  art)  is  generally  very  simple 
under  the  influence  of  education.  Habitu- 
ated by  their  office  to  treat  of  the  most  deli- 
cate matters  from  a  scientific  standpoint,  they 
find,  precisely  in  their  exclusively  scientific 
preoccupations,  a  personal  remedy  for  the 
dangers  that  may  come  from  these  things  for 
those  who  have  not  the  same  preoccupations. 
Thence  it  is  not  a  far  cry  to  speak  of  sci- 
ence for  science's  sake,  as  others  speak  of  art 
for  art's  sake,  without  weighing  sufficiently 
the  psychological  conditions  which  oblige  the 
generality  of  men  to  envisage  things  under  a 
more  complex  aspect.  But  who  does  not  see 
the  danger  of  such  an  attitude,  especially  in 
what  concerns  the  training  of  children  to  pur- 
ity? 

Let  us  grant,  for  the  nonce,  that  science  does 
preserve  from  harm,  and  that  the  scientific 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    33 

emotion  that  arises  from  a  clear  view  of  things 
renders  those  who  enjoy  it  in  some  sort  im- 
mune, by  the  very  fact  of  their  complexity, 
against  whatever  noxiousness  certain  revela- 
tions may  contain.  It  is  none  the  less  true 
that  a  similar  "immunity"  will  be  the  privi- 
lege only  of  a  few  specialists,  of  those  pre- 
cisely for  whom  science  means  everything,  and 
who  enjoy  the  scientific  emotion  at  the  ex- 
pense of  other  emotions,  whatever  they  may 
be.  But  what  are  we  to  think  of  those  other 
men  who  are  not  actuated  by  science,  and 
especially  of  children,  who  will  not  be  moved 
by  it? 

Now  or  never  is  the  time  to  recall  a  truth 
upon  which  I  have  already  insisted,  and  which 
does  not  admit  of  neglect  in  so  serious  a  mat- 
ter, namely,  that  human  nature  is  not  intact. 
One  may  not  believe  this  truth,  but  he  will 
be  obliged,  by  scientific  loyalty,  to  bow  be- 
fore the  universal  fact  that  it  proclaims.  In 
fact,  if  there  are  some  among  us  who  are  sen- 
sible to  the  charms  of  science,  and  if  from 
its  touch  we  experience  a  high  and  healthy 


34   INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

emotion,  there  are  more  of  us — even  the  most 
of  us — who,  in  the  face  of  certain  "realities" 
that  have  nothing  to  do  with  science,  feel, 
during  dark  hours  from  which  no  one  is  ex- 
empt, certain  evil  inclinations  that  the  scien- 
tific emotion,  by  itself,  cannot  neutralize. 

It  is  a  general  truth  that  this  painful  con- 
dition is  the  more  evident  among  children. 
Science,  as  such,  tells  them  nothing  that  avails; 
and  their  will,  in  an  embryonic  condition,  has 
no  power  of  protecting  them  against  these 
revelations.  To  maintain  with  Dr.  Doleris, 
for  example,  that  to  preserve  the  spirit  from 
surprise  and  fear  and  curiosity  it  is  sufficient 
that  the  child's  intellect,  in  virtue  of  a  wisely 
graduated  teaching,  should  be  enlightened  in 
advance  of  the  physiological  manifestations  of 
the  sexual  instinct — doubtless  this  is  to  show 
one's  self  an  optimistic  theorist,  but  not  a  well- 
informed  psychologist. 

Foerster  has  with  power  and  just  astonish- 
ment raised  his  voice  against  such  an  intel- 
lectualist  method.  "The  contemporary  cham- 
pions  of   sexual    education    are   gravely   de- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    35 

ceived,"  he  writes,  "when  they  imagine  that  in 
our  purely  intellectualist  schools — where  the 
moral  aspirations  of  the  child  are  only  poorly 
and  superficially  fostered — one  can  all  of  a 
sudden,  without  any  change  of  teaching,  give 
abundant  enlightenment  upon  the  most  animal 
side  of  our  nature  and  fight  these  temptations 
by  making  a  simple  appeal  to  a  sense  of  honor 
that  has  not  been  cultivated,  and  to  a  force 
of  will  which  has  never  been  exercised.  It 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  all  teaching  of 
this  kind  reveals  not  only  dangers  but  also 
pleasures,  and  that  to  renounce  the  pleasures 
there  is  required  not  merely  a  well-digested 
knowledge,  but  a  sufficiently  strong  will."  * 

Now,  then,  what  can  give  the  will  the  power 
it  needs  efficaciously  to  resist  the  instinctive 
impulse  of  the  senses  towards  these  pleasures 
that  can  be  revealed  to  them?  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  necessary  to  present  to  the  will 
objective  motives  capable  of  concentrating  all 
the  powers  of  love  and  desire  that  it  holds 
in  reserve,  and  which  only  need  to  be  wisely 
utilized.    Because,  under  the  influence  of  these 


36    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

motives,  whose  character  of  irresistible  attrac- 
tion is  well  expressed  by  the  term  ideal,  the 
will  undertakes  the  task,  and,  by  repeated  acts 
generating  habits  or  moral  virtues,  gives  the 
preference  to  less  special  goods  which  aid  it 
in  assimilating  more  and  more  of  the  ideal 
loved,  and  in  realizing  it;  that  is,  in  impreg- 
nating all  its  actions  with  that  light  and  in 
captivating  for  its  own  advantage  all  the  use- 
ful energies  of  human  sensibility. 

But  how  are  these  motives  capable  of  turn- 
ing aside,  for  the  advantage  of  the  human 
ideal  and  the  detriment  of  the  animal  senses, 
the  immense  need  of  happiness  at  the  root  of 
the  will?  It  is  here  that  the  declared  ad- 
vocates of  a  strong  moral  education,  as  a  sup- 
plement for  a  scientific  teaching  about  the 
physiology  of  sensation,  do  not  agree.  Though 
they  unite  in  asserting  the  necessity  of  these 
motives,  they  do  not  all  present  them  in  the 
same  way,  nor  attribute  to  them  the  same  edu- 
cative value. 

MM.  Parode  and  Malapert,  for  example 
(replying  to  Dr.  Doleris,  whose  radical  and 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    37 

exclusive  intellectualism  they  reject),  think 
that  moral  education  can  be  given  without  ap- 
peal to  any  metaphysics  or  religious  dogma; 
that,  without  leaving  the  domain  of  nature 
and  passing  the  sphere  of  social  activity  where 
our  individual  life  flourishes,  it  is  possible  to 
find  motives  to  resist  the  disorders  of  sense 
and  to  protect  children  especially  against  the 
dangers  which  attach  to  the  precocious  and 
(according  to  them)  necessary  revelations.  I 
am  much  afraid  that  they  are  mistaken  and 
are  exposing  themselves  to  serious  miscalcu- 
lations. 

The  lay  school,  after  twenty  years  of  care- 
ful experimenting  with  the  educative  value  of 
well-learned  motives  of  human  dignity  and 
social  justice  dear  to  its  partisans,  has  entirely 
failed  upon  this  special  point — as  upon  others 
— to  furnish  any  proofs.  Indeed,  it  would 
even  be  easy  enough  to  show  this  by  the  facts 
that  it  has  unearthed. 

It  is  no  secret  to  any  one  that  criminality  in 
general,  and  juvenile  criminality  in  particu- 
lar, especially  in  what  concerns  sexual  moral- 


38    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

ity,  has  developed  in  a  distressing  fashion  in 
the  past  years ;  that  is  to  say,  since  the  develop^ 
ment  of  the  secular  schools.  But  let  us  drop 
the  facts  now  and  see  the  theory.  M.  Del- 
volve  has  brought  out  its  inefficiency;  and  even 
supposing — what  I  do  not  grant — that  his  ar- 
guments are  not  irrefutable,  at  least  his  at- 
tempt should  have  the  merit  of  shaking  the 
unlimited  confidence  that  the  systematic  ad- 
versaries of  religious  teaching  have  placed  in 
an  exclusively  lay  education,  and  should  make 
them  more  cautious. 

Almost  all  recent  students  of  statistics  of 
crime  have  given  as  one  of  the  causes  for  the 
recrudescence  of  crimes  among  children  and 
adolescents  the  progressive  disappearance  of 
religious  teaching,  certain  of  them  bearing  this 
testimony  even  while  calumniating  religious 
teaching.2  Is  not  this  a  direct  blow  at  the 
omnipotence  of  secular  education? 

M.  Jacob,  for  example,  in  his  manual  of 
secular  morality  has  finally  expressed  serious 
doubts  as  to  the  efficiency  of  his  method.  We 
have  the  proof  in  one  of  the  letters  of  the  emi- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    39 

nent  professor  to  his  friends,  recently  pub- 
lished by  M.  Bougie.  Here  is  the  most  sig- 
nificant passage: 

"The  labor  of  revising  my  course  of  moral 
practice  does  not  advance  rapidly;  in  the  first 
quarter  I  have  been  able  to  revise  only  seven 
lessons,  and  I  know  that  they  still  greatly  need 
being  gone  over  and  retouched.  The  task  I 
am  attempting  seems  more  difficult  the  fur- 
ther on  I  go.  I  would  treat  only  of  the  most 
simple  truths,  accessible  to  the  whole  world, 
and  yet  I  hate  to  mutilate  the  most  complex 
ideas  in  simplifying  them.  Then,  too,  I  must 
admit  that  upon  certain  points  I  have  arrived 
theoretically  at  no  satisfactory  solution.  I 
shall  soon  have  to  treat  the  problem  of  jus- 
tice, and  to-day  I  tried  to  define  the  notion  of 
justice:  it  was  impossible  to  get  a  definition 
fitting  all  the  cases."  3 

Meanwhile  it  is  upon  this  notion  of  justice 
that  MM.  Parode  and  Malapert  flatter  them- 
selves principally  to  rest  the  moral  education 
of  children  in  the  matter  of  chastity.4 

I  believe,  indeed,  that  this  notion  of  jus- 


4o    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

tice  may  efficiently  serve  as  a  foundation,  but 
on  condition  of  giving  it  its  full  value  meta- 
physically and  concretely  by  combining  it 
with  the  idea  of  God.  Because,  apart  from 
this  divine  foundation,  the  notion  of  justice 
can  have  only  a  relative  value.  Justice,  no 
more  than  the  society  on  which  it  is  based,  has 
within  itself  its  raison  d'etre.  Therefore  it  is 
not  ultimately  but  mediately  in  its  name  that 
we  can  demand  of  men  the  practice  of  con- 
tinence, regard  being  had  to  the  claims  of 
society  upon  the  individual  and  the  duties  of 
individuals  to  society,  whose  foundations 
should  not  be  undermined  by  immorality. 

The  case  is  the  same  with  the  notions  of  hu- 
man dignity  and  autonomy,  upon  which  some 
found  the  most  beautiful  hopes.  Separated 
from  the  idea  of  God,  they  lose  the  greater 
part  of  their  value.  Foerster,  who  is  particu- 
larly attached  to  the  development  of  the  idea 
of  autonomy  as  the  ultimate  motive  of  moral 
education,  advises  us,  at  the  end  of  his  work, 
that  in  his  opinion  this  autonomy,  to  be  ef- 
ficient, ought  itself  to  be  based  upon  a  reli- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    41 

gious  foundation,  and  he  promises  a  thesis 
upon  this  point. 

I  do  not  deny  that  motives  drawn  from  so- 
cial justice  and  human  dignity  may  have  in 
themselves  a  certain  educative  value.  But 
this  much  is  sure,  that  this  value  is  pedagogi- 
cally  small.  These  ideas  are  too  abstract  to 
influence  the  souls  of  children  and  to  render 
wholesome  their  physical  tendencies.  In  this 
regard  they  can  do  next  to  nothing. 

It  may  be  granted  that  it  is  always  possi- 
ble to  embody  these  ideas  in  facts  or  in  repre- 
sentative men,  and  in  this  way  to  incite  imi- 
tation, to  which  children  are  so  inclined.  But, 
in  the  first  place,  it  would  be  necessary  for 
all  the  educators  to  agree  upon  the  value  of 
these  ideas,  and  upon  the  men  who  represent 
them.  Now  one  knows  well  enough  from  ex- 
perience that  the  present-day  secular  educa- 
tors have  not  all  the  Same  notion  of  social  jus- 
tice or  of  human  dignity.  On  the  contrary, 
their  ideas  on  these  points  are  most  anarchical, 
and  usually  they  are  much  more  concerned 
with   political   than   with   moral    education. 


42    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

From  the  secular  point  of  view,  then,  we 
are  reduced  to  a  moral  education  which  rests 
entirely  upon  motives  whose  theoretical  value 
is  lessened  by  isolation  from  their  divine 
source,  and  whose  pedagogical  value  is  prac- 
tically nil,  or  almost  so.  I  do  not  conclude 
that  secular  education  in  itself  is  to  be  con- 
demned; but  I  have  a  right  to  conclude  that 
to  be  really  efficient,  it  ought  at  least  to  con- 
nect its  motives  of  action  with  their  living 
source — God.  So  long  as  secular  education 
does  not  do  this,  and  especially  so  long  as  it 
does  the  contrary  and  organizes  war  against 
God,  it  is  doomed  to  impotence.  One  can  pre- 
dict that  without  being  a  prophet  and  with- 
out sneering. 

Besides  the  fact  that  religious  teaching  has 
proved  its  efficiency  in  training  to  purity,  and 
that  a  long  experience  argues  in  its  favor,  it 
is  not  useless  to  recall  that  part  of  its  abso- 
lute educative  power  comes  from  its  motives 
and  part  from  the  wonderful  provision  of 
grace  which  is  placed  at  the  disposal  of  those 
wishing  to  live  under  its  influence. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    43 

Theoretically  and  pedagogically,  the  mo- 
tives for  moral  education  invoked  by  the 
Catholic  Church  are  irresistible.  I  shall  not 
insist  upon  their  theoretical  value.  It  is 
enough  to  recall  that  in  asking  her  adherents 
to  act  for  love  of  God,  whose  right  to  com- 
mand us  is  incontestable  (since  He  unites  in 
Himself  all  the  other  motives  of  action  as 
being  their  only  objective  raison  d'etre),  and 
in  proposing  eternal  happiness  with  Him 
upon  condition  of  our  temporarily  conform- 
ing with  His  will,  the  Catholic  religion  re- 
sponds to  all  our  capacities  for  desire,  to  the 
tendency  to  universal  happiness  which  char- 
acterizes the  human  will  and  which  cannot  be 
realized  apart  from  the  Infinite. 

But  to  have  a  real  pedagogical  value,  this 
universal  divine  motive  with  an  absolute  theo- 
retical value  ought  to  be  able  to  concretize 
itself.  The  universal,  as  such,  is  abstract,  and 
escapes  the  comprehension  of  the  child. 
Hence  it  is  difficult  to  integrate  it  to  the  grow- 
ing will,  and,  by  the  will,  to  all  the  tenden- 
cies of  sense.     Now,  who  has  ever  gone  as 


44    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

far  as  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  "realiza- 
tion" of  its  motives  of  action;  in  other  words, 
of  its  Ideal? 

To  us,  our  God,  the  very  same  who  rules 
and  vivifies  our  conduct,  is  not  merely  an  Idea, 
but  the  Supreme  Reality.  He  is  Being  Itself, 
say  the  philosophers.  "In  Him  we  are  and 
live  and  move,"  proclaims  St.  Paul.  He 
dwells  personally  in  the  souls  of  the  justified, 
declares  the  Church.  More  than  that,  our 
God  is  to  us  the  Incarnate  Ideal,  the  Word 
made  flesh,  the  God-man ;  in  a  word,  Christ, 
in  whom  are  concentrated  the  Christian  teach- 
ing and  life. 

The  doctrine  of  Christ  is  the  centre  of  the 
Catholic  dogma.  Indeed,  it  is  to  Christ  that 
all  doctrinal  ideas  lead,  and  it  is  from  Him 
that  all  the  means  of  realizing  these  ideas, 
and  of  living,  are  derived.  He  embodies  in 
His  person  the  ideas  and  the  facts.  The  in- 
dividual life  of  the  faithful,  as  the  social  life 
of  the  Church,  revolves  around  Him. 

To  believe  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Incarnate  Word,  is  at  the  same  time  to  be- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    45 

lieve  in  the  Father  who  sent  Him,  and  in  the 
Spirit  of  love  who  proceeds  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  and  who  has  been  sent  to  us  by 
Them. 

Belief  in  Christ  is  easily  instilled  in  chil- 
dren. The  name  of  Jesus  is  the  first  that  they 
murmur  at  the  knees  of  their  mothers.  At 
the  name  of  Jesus,  upon  awakening,  the  idea 
of  God  takes  form  in  their  imagination. 
Through  Him  they  picture  to  themselves 
their  heavenly  Father,  and  Mary,  their 
heavenly  Mother.  At  the  invocation  of  the 
Sacred  Name  they  have  an  intuition  of  all  that 
one  can  expect  of  them.  Because,  if  Christ 
is  the  centre  of  Catholic  doctrine,  He  is  also 
the  model  of  Christian  life. 

Every  Christian  has  at  his  disposal  the  ex- 
amples of  His  life.  By  them  he  is  urged  to 
the  imitation  of  the  divine  Model,  obliged,  as 
He,  to  carry  each  day  the  cross  that  God  has 
fashioned  to  the  measure  of  his  weakness  or 
strength.  There  is  not  a  duty  of  the  individ- 
ual or  social  life  of  which  Christ  has  not  given 
him  an  example  which  strikes  him  and  con- 


46    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

stantly  appeals  to  the  sense  of  his  duties  to- 
wards God,  his  neighbor,  and  himself. 

The  child  especially,  if  he  be  naturally  in- 
clined to  imitation,  finds  in  the  Child  of  Naza- 
reth a  rival,  and  it  is  not  hard  for  those  who 
have  charge  of  his  moral  education  to  select 
portions  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  with  special 
reference  to  purity.  This  is  so  much  the  easier 
to  them,  since,  not  content  with  being  the 
model  of  the  Christian  life,  Christ  is  its  ever- 
flowing  spring. 

Is  He  not  the  Author  of  grace  by  which  our 
nature  blossoms  in  living  works?  And  to  com- 
municate to  us  this  grace  has  He  not  given 
us  sensible  signs  called  Sacraments?  Now  it 
is  by  grace,  we  know,  that  we  enter  into  direct 
and  intuitive  communication  with  God,  that 
we  experience  His  presence.  This  experience 
of  the  divine  is  at  the  gate  of  all  justified  souls 
and  adapts  itself  to  all  ages,  temperaments, 
and  conditions. 

The  child  who  is  in  a  state  of  grace,  but 
whose  intellect  has  not  yet  put  away  the  swad- 
dling-clothes of  sense,  can,  after  its  own  fash- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    47 

ion,  experience  God,  divine  what  he  cannot 
understand,  feel  supernaturally  what  naturally 
escapes  his  intelligence  and  his  faith.  And 
this  embraces  the  essentials  of  the  Christian 
interior  life.  As  regards  worship  itself, 
whether  it  be  interior  or  exterior,  social  or 
individual,  is  it  not  all  completely  organized 
in  virtue  of  Christ?  Is  it  not  possible  to  give 
to  a  child  of  the  tenderest  age  the  beneficent 
obsession  of  Jesus?  The  first  sign  of  religion 
made  by  him,  under  the  impulsion  of  a  mother 
attentive  to  the  best  things  capable  of  morally 
influencing  the  soul  of  her  child — is  it  not  the 
sign  of  the  cross?  The  first  formulas  that  pass 
his  lips,  still  incapable  of  clearly  expressing 
them — are  they  not  theological  formulas,  the 
"Our  Father"  and  "Hail  Mary"?  So  small 
that  he  is  hardly  capable  of  anything,  the 
child  is  already  praying,  in  the  morning,  at 
night,  after  meals.  His  prayers  take — and 
nothing  is  more  touching — the  form  of  a  so- 
cial duty.  He  prays  for  his  relatives,  for 
sinners,  for  the  Church. 


48    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Without  knowing  exactly  what  he  says,  the 
child  divines  what  he  wishes  to  say.  One 
gets  the  impression  that  he  is  not  alone  when 
praying,  he  puts  so  much  naive  gravity  into 
his  prayers.  For  him  these  acts  are  not  as 
others;  he  feels  them,  and  spreads  around  him 
a  vivid  sense  of  the  divine. 

Of  what  influence  is  not  a  doctrine  such  as 
the  Catholic  capable,  when  it  has  at  its  dis- 
posal such  means  of  life,  so  suitable  to  the 
time,  and  so  efficient?  We  are  very  far  from 
abstract  formulas  of  human  dignity  and  so- 
cial justice. 

And  we  have  not  said  all.  For  if  Christ 
is  the  eternal  spring  of  the  Christian  life,  He 
is  also  its  daily  food.  One  will  understand 
that  I  speak  of  the  Eucharist,  the  Sacrament 
par  excellence  of  the  living,  to  which  all  the 
others  are  directed.  Thanks  to  the  Eucharist, 
it  is  allowed  us,  in  the  degree  of  our  needs  and 
our  desires,  to  incorporate  ourselves  with 
Christ  Himself;  or,  better  still,  to  assimilate 
ourselves  to  Him,  and,  with  Him,  to  assimi- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    49 

late  all  the  doctrine  and  all  the  life  that  He 
concentrates  in  His  person. 

The  unbelievers  and  many  of  the  faithful 
were  scandalized  or  simply  agitated  when  the 
Holy  Father  recently  extolled  Holy  Com- 
munion for  children.  GBut  there  could  be 
nothing  more  normal,  nor  more  fatherly,  than 
this  deed.  If  one  grants  that  Christ  is  the 
"Spirit  of  life,"  why  cannot  children  com- 
municate with  the  Spirit  and  partake  of  this 
life?  Does  not  their  weakness  rather  plead 
in  favor  of  this  solution?  The  Christ  whom 
they  receive  would  help  them,  in  their  own 
default,  to  remedy  their  weakness  by  an  abun- 
dance of  grace  appropriate  to  their  state. 
Living  in  Christ  since  their  childhood,  they 
will  be  less  tempted,  when  the  time  comes, 
to  seek  their  life  elsewhere.  When  their 
senses  awake,  the  living  joy  which  will  come 
from  an  habitual  contact  with  God  will  guar- 
antee them  against  the  seduction  of  pleasures, 
especially  of  the  imagination.  Their  moral 
education   upon   these   points  will   be   more 


50    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

easily  accomplished,  and  the  special  teachings 
deemed  opportune  will  find  them  already  pre- 
pared to  receive  them. 

I  do  not  wish  to  pretend  that  this  life  of 
grace  before  nature  has  been  able  to  give  any 
true  signs  of  life  absolutely  guarantees  chil- 
dren against  all  danger  of  falling.  But  it  is 
clear  that  there  will  be  marvellously  pre- 
pared in  them  the  habit  of  acting  according 
to  grace,  which  acts — and  this  without  con- 
tradiction— only  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
of  nature. 

A  Christian  education  thus  organized,  with 
such  motives  for  action  and  such  means  of 
life,  enables  the  young  man  to  strengthen 
himself  by  reflection  upon  such  powerful  mo- 
tives and  by  the  use  of  such  efficient  means. 

Dr.  Doleris  has  pretended  that  the  Church 
has  failed  in  her  mission  regarding  education 
to  purity.  Doubtless  he  intended  to  say  that 
there  are  many  Catholics  at  the  present  mo- 
ment who  are  not  chaste.  Granted;  but  is 
not  this  precisely  because  they  are  not  really 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    51 

Catholics,  but  such  only  in  name?  What  does 
this  prove?  Absolutely  nothing,  if  it  be 
shown  that  Catholics  who  really  live  accord- 
ing to  their  faith  and  use  the  means  of  life 
it  affords  never  find  it  too  hard  to  acquire  and 
preserve  the  virtue  of  purity.  Thank  God, 
there  are  still  many  such.  If  Dr.  Doleris 
has  a  love  for  the  truth,  let  him  make  a  se- 
rious investigation  of  our  institutions  and 
colleges  and  religious  houses,  and  our  fami- 
lies, and  he  will  be  edified  upon  this  point. 
Given  a  Christian  education,  in  the  integral 
way  in  which  I  understand  it,  from  the  cradle, 
it  is  impossible  for  a  child,  arrived  at  the 
age  when  revelations  become  necessary,  not 
to  be^armed  effectually  to  resist  the  sensual 
excitation  which  may  come  to  him  from  these 
very  revelations  conjointly  with  the  crisis  of 
puberty  through  which  he  must  pass.  The 
question  now  is  to  know  what  one  should  rea- 
sonably understand  by  "revelations,"  and,  for 
example,  if  it  be  necessary  that  they  should 
be  of  the  scientific  kind. 


52    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

II.     Moral  Education  and  Scientific 
Initiation 

Many  educators,  secular  and  religious,  we 
have  already  remarked,  are  advocates  of  a 
scientific  education  of  children  regarding  the 
problem  of  purity.  Some  urge  an  individual 
scientific  education,  the  duty  of  imparting 
which  will  be  incumbent  upon  the  parents; 
others  advocate  a  collective  education,  and 
are  willing  to  confide  it  to  specialists,  and 
even  to  physicians.  This  is,  in  particular,  the 
opinion  of  Dr.  Doleris,  but  he  is  not  the  only 
one  to  sustain  it.  Dr.  Toulouse  is  of  the 
same  view.  M.  Durkheim  agrees  that  the 
scientific  initiation  proposed  by  Dr.  Doleris  is 
necessary,  but  that  moral  education  should  be 
added.5  This  is  also  the  opinion  of  M. 
Parode.  I  make  an  exception  of  M.  Mala- 
pert, because  of  a  conference  given  by  him 
upon  this  subject,  when  he  understood  collec- 
tive education  in  purity  otherwise  than  the 
fanatics  of  science.6  In  short,  a  large  num- 
ber  of    lay   persons    and    many   physicians, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    53 

among  whom  are  the  most  influential  mem- 
bers of  the  Societe  Frangaise  de  Prophylaxie 
Sanitaire  et  Moral,  favorably  regard  the  in- 
stitution of  technical  and  collective  teaching 
relative  to  the  "secret  chapter." 

But  it  is  not  only  seculars  that  consider  the 
question  of  such  teaching.  Some  religious 
educators  agree,  with  the  reservation  that 
the  teaching  should  be  strictly  individual  and 
not  collective.  Such  is  the  view  of  Abbe 
Fonssagrives,  who  asks  that  religious  teachers 
associate  with  themselves  in  this  work  scien- 
tific counsellors  "who  can  corroborate,  supple- 
ment, and  complete  this  teaching."  7  But  he 
vigorously  opposes  the  proposal  of  Dr.  Bur- 
lureaux  and  Professor  Pinard  to  make  the 
teaching  collective.  "We  believe,"  he  writes, 
"that  lectures  delivered  to  young  people  on 
so  delicate  a  subject  will  go  directly  against 
the  moral  object  that  the  lecturer  would  have 
in  view."  8  Indeed,  Abbe  Fonssagrives  else- 
where, speaking  of  individual  scientific  teach- 
ing, calls  it  hardly  more  than  a  sane  notion 
of  hygiene,  and  we  do  not  blame  him.     He 


54    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

quotes  Bacon,  "Propriety  is  purity  of  the 
body,"  and  recalls  that  religion  and  hygiene 
have  interests  in  common. 

But  others  are  more  exacting  than  Abbe 
Fonssagrives.  Speaking  especially  of  young 
girls,  Mme.  Adhemar  says:  "When  physi- 
ological phenomena  announce  new  functions, 
the  educator  ought  to  explain  them  scientifi- 
cally, as  a  fact  of  the  natural  order,  without 
going  into  useless  analysis."  9 

These  opinions,  and  others  that  we  refrain 
from  quoting,  have  had  the  effect  of  arousing 
the  imagination  of  certain  educators,  equally 
Christian,  such  as  MM.  Barbier  and  Holland. 
One  will  find  the  expression  is  "shaded"  to 
suit  their  idea  in  the  Critique  du  Libe- 
ralisme.10  Perhaps  it  is  just  to  think  that 
they  might  have  been  able  to  see  the  ques- 
tion with  more  calmness,  and  especially  more 
objectivity,  and  that  having  to  fit  the  conclu- 
sions of  Abbe  Fonssagrives  and  M.  fidouard 
Montier  to  those  of  the  principal  collabora- 
tors of  the  masonic  review,  Acacia,  they 
should  have  known  that,  the  principles  not 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    55 

being  the  same  on  both  sides,  the  conclusions 
could  hardly  resemble  each  other  except  in  ap- 
pearance. 

In  short,  when  MM.  Fonssagrives  and 
Montier lt  propose  a  scientific  education  in 
purity  for  young  men  and  young  women,  it 
is  on  the  express  condition  of  associating  that 
education  with  an  integral  religious  teaching. 
Now  I  am  not  aware  that  the  editors  of  the 
Acacia  have  ever  had  this  idea.  It  follows 
that  one  cannot  without  injustice  submit  the 
opinions  of  the  One  and  the  other  to  the  same 
anathema.  Because  this  would  be  to  do  to 
the  integral  Christian  education  the  injury  of 
thinking  that  it  places  the  children  who  re- 
ceive it  in  the  same  position  of  inferiority,  in 
regard  to  certain  revelations,  as  those  who, 
by  deliberate  purpose,  have  been  deprived  of 
it,  if  indeed  they  have  not  been  forewarned 
against  it. 

Besides,  Abbe  Fonssagrives,  to  speak  only 
of  him,  forcefully  rejects  all  idea  of  a  col- 
lective scientific  teaching  to  be  given  to  chil- 
dren on  these  delicate  matters;  whereas  free- 


56    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

masons  and  freethinkers,  without  thought  of 
the  modesty  of  the  children,  or  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  age  or  sex  or  environment,  in- 
sist upon  the  necessity  and  universality  of  such 
teaching. 

Finally,  the  religious  educators,  advocating 
a  certain  scientific  initiation  of  children  into 
the  problem  of  purity,  not  only  wish  it  to  be 
individual,  but  reduce  it  to  a  minimum.  Abbe 
Fonssagrives  restricts  it  to  counsels  of  hygiene. 
M.  Montier  asks  parents  to  use,  together  with 
clearness  and  accuracy,  all  necessary  prudence 
and  reserve.  He  wishes  that  parents  should 
take  notice  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
question  presents  itself  to  the  child,  which  is 
very  far  from  pretending  that  they  are  bound 
to  present  it,  even  before  it  arises,  at  random 
and  out  of  place. 

There  is,  then,  more  than  a  difference  of 
attitude  between  secular  and  religious  educa- 
tors; there  is  a  complete  opposition  to  sci- 
entific education  in  purity  when  this  educa- 
tion would  demand  on  the  part  of  parents  and 
children  a  technical  knowledge  of  the  func- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    57 

tions  which  belong  to  the  organs  of  genera- 
tion, or,  again,  of  the  physiological  conse- 
quences resulting  from  their  normal  or  ab- 
normal exercise. 

This  technical  knowledge  could  only  be  im- 
posed, in  my  opinion,  upon  the  assumption 
that  educators  would  be  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween this  and  the  method  of  absolute  igno- 
rance, which  certain  theorists  still  defend  by 
way  of  reaction  against  all  scientific  initiation. 
Up  to  a  certain  point  I  admit  that  one  can 
theoretically  prefer  the  method  of  silence  to 
that  of  any  sort  of  intellectual  initiation,  even 
in  a  small  dose,  that  does  not  rest  upon  a  strong 
moral  education.  We  shall  shortly  explain 
ourselves  on  this  controverted  point.  But  in 
practice,  considering  the  way  in  which  the 
problem  of  educating  to  purity  now  presents 
itself,  I  would  without  scruple  sacrifice  igno- 
rance to  knowledge,  upon  the  well-understood 
condition  that  the  scientific  teaching  should 
always  be  preceded  and  accompanied  by  an 
integral  Christian  education. 

Fortunately,  we  are  not  reduced  to  this  ex- 


58    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

tremity.  Between  the  method  of  scientific  ini- 
tiations and  rigorous  silence  there  is  room  for 
a  progressive  intellectual  initiation,  adapting 
itself  to  an  infinity  of  circumstances  of  age, 
sex,  temperament,  and  environment,  and 
which  compels  us  to  view  educating  to  purity 
much  less  as  a  question  of  science  than  one 
of  art. 

We  shall  explain  shortly  the  way  in  which 
it  seems  to  us  that  at  present  this  art  of  train- 
ing to  purity,  as  the  basis  of  intellectual  initia- 
tion, in  the  large  sense  of  the  word — that  is, 
varying  between  common  sense  inclusively  and 
scientific  initiation  exclusively — ought  to  be 
organized.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  the  time 
being  briefly  to  enumerate  the  reasons  why 
I  believe  an  individual  or  collective  scientific 
education  is  neither  necessary  nor  possible. 

The  first  requirement  for  a  good  training  in 
purity  is  that  it  should  be  accessible  to  all 
the  natural  educators  of  the  child,  and  to 
the  children  themselves.  Now,  who  would 
maintain  that  all  parents  are  fitted  to  give,  and 
all  children  to  receive,  a  scientific  education 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    59 

upon  so  delicate  and  special  a  point?  Is  it 
not  a  notorious  fact  that  a  large  number  of 
parents  do  not  know  even  the  simplest  and 
most  elementary  and  most  general  laws  of  in- 
fant hygiene?  A  Dutch  statistician,  M. 
Ramaer,12  has  proved  that,  in  the  single  coun- 
try of  Holland,  where  in  the  last  few  years 
the  Catholic  population  has  dropped  from 
thirty-nine  to  thirty-five  per  cent.,  the  phe- 
nomenon is  to  be  attributed  to  infant  mortal- 
ity. Now,  this  mortality  is  due  in  a  large 
measure,  it  appears,  to  a  complete  ignorance  of 
the  laws  of  hygiene.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, how  can  we  require  parents  to  know 
and  apply  scientifically  to  their  children  laws 
peculiar  to  the  present  problem  and  whose 
existence  they  do  not  even  suspect? 

Some  one  may  answer,  perhaps,  that  the 
evil  is  not  without  remedy,  and  that  for  a  so- 
lution it  suffices  to  initiate  the  new  genera- 
tions into  the  knowledge  and  scientific  appli- 
cation of  these  laws.  Nothing  is  truer,  and  I 
here  express  my  desire  for  the  creation  in 
the  schools  of  a  new  branch  of  education 


60    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

where  a  large  part  of  the  time  will  be  given 
entirely  to  elementary  hygienic  prescriptions. 
But  to  be  scientific  this  teaching  should  be 
addressed  only  to  young  men  and  young 
women  who  are  already  formed  and  in  a  po- 
sition to  know  the  bearing  of  these  facts ;  that 
is,  at  an  age  when  the  great  majority  of  chil- 
dren have  left  school. 

Besides,  supposing  that  the  problem  were 
one  day  solved  for  the  parents,  it  would  still 
remain  to  be  solved  for  the  children,  and  it 
is  their  education  in  purity  that  is  the  precise 
point  at  issue  now.  Are  children,  indeed,  at 
the  tender  age  when  generally  the  crisis  of 
puberty  proposes  troubling  questions  to  them, 
capable  of  appreciating  the  import  of  a  sci- 
entific education  on  these  questions?  Some, 
perhaps,  but  certainly  not  the  majority.  If, 
then,  it  is  possible,  without  going  into  the  mat- 
ter with  scientific  precision  and  yet  without 
being  constrained  to  maintain  their  ignorance, 
to  enlighten  them,  I  do  not  see  why  one  should 
not  be  satisfied  with  this  middle  position, 
where  common  sense  and  tact  are  called  upon 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    61 

to  play  a  large  role,  and  which  has  the  rare 
merit  of  being  within  the  reach  of  all  parents 
and  of  all  children. 

Now  this  is  possible  if  parents  are  suffi- 
ciently (though  not  scientifically,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word)  instructed  to  apply  to  their 
children  the  essential  laws  of  hygiene,  and 
also  to  satisfy  their  need  of  knowing  certain 
things,  whenever  this  need  appears,  without 
entering  into  technical  details  that  many 
would  be  unable  to  give  and  which  would 
be  superfluous  to  most  children.  I  cannot 
give  the  whole  of  this  method  now,  but  I  hope 
that  a  later  development  will  be  satisfactory. 
•  The  scientific  education  in  purity  so  much 
vaunted  by  certain  secular  educators  and  by 
physicians — timidly  proposed  by  some  reli- 
gious educators,  too,  because  of  the  deplorable 
consequences  that  they  fear,  in  this  stream  of 
evil  revelations,  from  a  prolonged  ignorance 
— this  scientific  education,  I  say,  not  being  ac- 
cessible to  the  majority  of  parents  or  of  chil- 
dren, cannot  be  proposed  as  a  necessary  and 
universal  method.     Perhaps  it  can  be  given 


62    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

sometimes  by  some  parents  and  to  some  chil- 
dren under  certain  circumstances,  but  the  ex- 
ception proves  the  rule. 

So  much  for  individual  scientific  education 
in  purity.  What  are  we  to  think  of  a  collec- 
tive education? 

Let  us  remember  that  Dr.  Doleris  would  in- 
struct even  the  youngest  children  in  the  small- 
est technical  details  of  the  phenomena  of  gen- 
eration, even  in  advance  of  the  awakening  of 
sexual  instincts,  "so  that  neither  fear  nor  sur- 
prise may  seize  the  spirit  when  those  organs 
manifest  their  vitality,  and  with  these  mani- 
festations awake  the  senses  and  imagination." 

Poor  children!  Let  us  leave  them  at  peace 
on  this  point  as  long  as  possible,  and  not  cause 
them  the  pain  consequent  upon  filling  their 
little  heads  with  indigestible  ideas.  Let  us 
stake  everything  on  the  methodic  and  progres- 
sive formation  of  their  will.  That  is  the  im- 
portant thing. 

If,  instead  of  spoiling  children  and  yield- 
ing to  their  every  whim,  we  accustom  them 
from  the  cradle  to  restraint,  to  obedience,  pa- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    63 

tience,  a  mastery  of  their  nerves;  if  we  infuse 
into  them  a  sense  of  duty,  and  of  the  sacri- 
fices that  it  implies,  utilizing  for  this  all  the 
resources  of  the  Christian  life  and  teaching, 
we  shall  have  more  chance  of  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  educating  to  purity,  when  it  inevitably 
presents  itself,  than  if  we  had  crammed  them 
with  the  "natural  sciences." 

Besides,  if  the  question  of  a  collective  sci- 
entific teaching  be  proposed,  it  would  be  nec- 
essary to  exclude  the  "very  young"  and  to  re- 
strict it  to  adolescents  of  fifteen  or  eighteen 
years,  whose  senses  and  imagination  are  awake. 
But  does  the  question  so  present  itself? 

In  the  first  place,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
reserve  this  technical  teaching  for  the  elite  of 
the  adolescents,  who  have  already  been 
"equilibrated"  by  a  strong  moral  education, 
and  who  would  see,  behind  the  scientific  ap- 
pearance enveloping  the  facts,  the  moral  value 
of  the  ideas  conveyed.  For  the  others,  those 
whose  wills  have  not  been  trained  and  who 
have  no  control  over  their  imagination,  would 
certainly  not  escape  the  peril  inherent  in  a 


64    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

teaching  that  undoubtedly  implies  dangers, 
but  also  reveals  pleasures — and  what  pleas- 
ures! 

Even  reduced  to  these  proportions,  is  a  col- 
lective scientific  education  possible?  I  be- 
lieve not.  Those  who  have  had  experience 
with  young  people  at  the  time  of  indecision 
and  trouble  know  well  enough  that  the  "best" 
suffer  by  being  occupied  in  common  with  ques- 
tions touching  the  animal  side  of  our  nature. 
They  lose  their  self-respect,  to  which  they 
cling  most  tenaciously  when  alone,  but  which 
escapes  them  as  soon  as  they  are  brought  to- 
gether in  a  crowd. 

Human  respect  is  a  curious  chapter  in  the 
psychology  of  crowds.  From  a  false  sense  of 
honor,  young  people  especially  try  to  appear 
unchaste  in  the  eyes  of  their  companions  and  to 
believe  their  comrades  are  so.  Explain  this 
who  can,  the  fact  remains  that  it  exists,  and 
any  scientific  teaching  regarding  purity  that 
does  not  take  this  into  account  is  inevitably 
doomed  to  failure. 

Does  this  mean  that,  in  the  field  of  purity, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    65 

all  collective  teaching  should  be  banished  a 
priori?  Yes,  if  there  is  question  of  a  scien- 
tific teaching  given  indifferently  to  all  young 
people,  and  even  if  restricted  to  the  elite.  No, 
if  one  intends  a  moral  teaching,  the  character 
of  which  precisely  envelops  and  sweetens  the 
technical  crudity.  I  think  that  collectively  as 
well  as  individually  there  are  ways  of  speak- 
ing clearly  of  chastity  and  of  the  conditions 
of  its  loss  or  gain,  without  giving  to  the  teach- 
ing the  allurement  of  a  course  in  medicine  or 
a  treatise  on  gynecology.  This  I  shall  ex- 
plain in  due  time. 

Nothing  remains  now,  in  concluding  this 
chapter,  except  to  treat  of  one  little  question 
whose  importance  will  not  escape  my  readers. 
That  is  the  question  of  books,  of  those  which 
speak  of  "all  that  a  young  man  or  a  young 
woman  should  know."  At  the  risk  of  appear- 
ing "narrow,"  I  am  not  afraid  to  say  that 
this  bookish  solution  of  the  problem  of  edu- 
cating to  purity  is  not  a  solution  at  all,  and 
that  in  practice  it  defeats  the  purpose  pro- 
posed by  its  advocates. 


66    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Indeed,  it  is  the  same  with  technical  books 
as  with  collective  scientific  teaching,  if  their 
danger  is  not  even  greater.  For  the  book, 
taking  no  account  of  the  relative  moral  value 
of  its  readers,  places  a  dangerous  instrument 
of  education  in  the  hands  of  the  young.  Even 
the  best  among  them  are  tempted  to  read  such 
books,  as  they  read  their  dictionaries  at  school, 
for  other  motives  than  those  of  instruction. 
And  this  is  not  to  do  an  injustice  to  young 
folks,  but  to  defend  them  against  themselves 
on  this  point.  It  is  very  easy  to  remember 
that  in  them,  as  in  others,  human  nature  is 
not  intact,  and  that  because  of  their  youth 
they  are  apt  to  forget  this.  It  is  the  duty 
rather  of  parents  and  confessors  to  read  these 
books,  to  meditate  upon  them,  to  correct  them, 
to  tone  down  the  technical  harshness,  and  to 
adapt  them  to  the  use  of  adolescents. 

1  Foerster,  L'ficole  et  le  Caractere,  pp.  61  et  seq. 

2  Duprat,  La  Criminalite  dans  l'Adolescence,  p.   ioo. 

3  Jacob,  Lettres  d'un  Philosophe,  par  P.  Bougie. 

4  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Franchise  de  Philosophic, 
fevrier,   191 1, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE   67 

5  Durkheim,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Franchise  de  Phi- 
losophic, fevrier,  191 1. 

6  Malapert,  La  Morale  Sexuelle  a  l'Ecole,  in  the  Revue 
de  F£ducation,   mars,    1909. 

7  Fonssagrives,  L'Education  de  la  Purete,  p.  56,  5th  ed. 

•W./P.59. 

9  D'Adhemar,   La  Nouvelle  Education   de  la   Femme 
dans  les  Classes  Cultivees. 

10  November   15,   1910;  September  15,  December  15, 
19.II* 

11  Montier,  De  l'Education  Sociale  et  Sentimentale  des 
Filles. 

12  Religie  in  Verband  met  Politick  in  Nederland,  1909. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  METHOD  OF  SILENCE  AND  THE  METHOD  OF 
COMMON  SENSE 

AMONG  those  who  are  at  present  occu- 
pied with  the  problem  of  educating  to 
purity  we  have  seen  that  there  are  warm  par- 
tisans of  a  scientific  initiation  pure  and  sim- 
ple. According  to  them,  it  suffices  to  reveal 
to  children,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex, 

/  all  the  technique  of  the  "secret  chapter"  in 
order  to  enable  them  to  avoid  all  the  dangers. 
The  scientific  light  would  in  this  case  play  a 
role  ordinarily  reserved  for  the  moral  force. 
Unfortunately  this  method  has  no  practical 
value.    By  not  taking  into  account  the  general 

s  and  individual  psychological  conditions  that 
characterize  children  in  regard  to  purity,  it 
goes  directly  against  the  end  proposed.    It  dis- 

x  arms  the  will  under  pretext  of  enlightening  it. 

168 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    69 

The  will,  indeed,  has  more  need  of  strength 
than  of  light,  though  it  has  need  of  both.  But 
it  is  not  the  light  that  gives  it  strength.  The  &«*" 
strength  of  the  will,  and  especially  its  mas-  4^  * 
tery  over  the  senses,  comes  from  sentiments 
inspired  by  irresistible  motives  of  action,  and 
from  a  persevering  action  sustained  by  these 
sentiments. 

To  pretend,  then,  in  the  difficult  field  of 
chastity,  to  substitute  for  a  preliminary  train- 
ing of  the  will  a  precocious  education  of  the 
intellect  is  to  upset  the  conditions  of  the  prob- 
lem and  to  expose  the  children  to  the  very 
dangers  from  which  we  wish  to  protect  them. 
The  fact  is  that  on  this  point  nothing  can  re- 
place a  strong  moral  education  of  the  will, 
and,  in  particular,  an  integral  religious  edu- 
cation. This,  we  submit,  we  have  sufficiently 
proved. 

But  once  admit  the  necessity  of  this  moral 
education  of  the  will  for  all  children  with- 
out exception,  and  that  from  the  cradle,  and 
another  question  not  less  important  claims  the 
attention    of    educators,    whether    these    be 


70    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

parents  or  confessors,  or  those  who  have  re- 
placed these  for  the  child. 

Here  is  the  question. 

Can  one  so  far  presume  upon  the  moral 
strength  of  children,  gained  by  an  integral  re- 
ligious education,  as  to  give  them,  individu- 
ally and  collectively,  a  technical  instruction 
in  all  the  details  concerning  the  exercise  of 
chastity? 

Or,  if  this  scientific  education  be  useless  and 
dangerous,  is  it  necessary  to  recur  to  the 
method  of  silence ;  that  is  to  say,  to  put  off  in- 
definitely, in  all  cases  and  no  matter  what  the 
circumstances,  the  hour  of  necessary  revela- 
tions?- 

We  have  already  called  attention  to  the 
danger  and  uselessness  of  individual  or  col- 
lective technical  teaching.  It  is  enough  to 
recall  here  that  all  the  natural  educators  of 
the  child  are  not  capable  of  giving,  nor  all 
the  children  of  receiving,  this  teaching;  and 
this  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  condemn  it. 

But,  from  the  fact  that  everything  about 
chastity  is  not  to  be  told  even  to  well-bred 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE   71 

children,  does  it  follow  that  nothing  at  all 
should  be  told?  Between  the  method  of  a 
precocious  and  technical  initiation  and  the 
method  of  absolute  silence  is  there  room  for 
no  other  method? 

Some  educators  think  so.  According  to 
them,  the  true  principle  in  the  matter  of  train- 
ing to  purity  is  that  of  silence  and  not  initia- 
tion. 

This  is  not  our  opinion.  On  the  contrary, 
we  believe  that,  on  principle  (apart  from  rare 
exceptions),  a  certain  systematic  individual 
initiation — let  us  call  it  the  method  of  com- 
mon sense — always  has  greater  educative 
value  than  the  method  of  silence,  upon  the 
well-understood  condition  that  we  are  speak- 
ing of  children  brought  up  in  a  Christian 
manner,  and  for  whom,  some  time  or  other, 
the  question  of  initiation  may  demand  an  an- 
swer; and  upon  the  condition,  further,  that  the 
initiation  be  individually  adapted  to  the  pres- 
ent needs  of  such  or  such  a  child. 

We  believe,  besides,  that  practically,  in  the 
actual  social   conditions,  where  the  greater 


72    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

part  of  the  children  are  involuntarily  and  al- 
most fatally  exposed  to  a  vicious  initiation, 
the  method  of  silence,  proposed  as  a  general 
method  of  education,  would  be  extremely  dan- 
gerous. 


I.     The  Method  of  Silence  for  Training  to 
Purity 

Let  us  repeat,  to  avoid  all  misunderstanding, 
that  the  children  whose  innocence  it  is  pro- 
posed to  safeguard  individually  are  Christian 
children  who  have  had  the  advantage,  in  their 
family,  at  church,  or  at  school,  of  the  integral 
religious  education  of  which  we  have  spoken. 
They  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  adolescence ; 
that  is,  at  the  age  (evidently  varying  greatly 
between  child  and  child)  when,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  profound  physiological  transfor- 
mations, certain  difficulties  regarding  the  prac- 
tice of  chastity  may  present  themselves  to 
their  souls. 

In  this  case  what  should  the  educators  do? 

If  there  were  question,  indeed,  of  children 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    73 

whose  moral  education  had  been  nil  or  incom- 
plete, the  problem  of  initiation  or  non-initia- 
tion would  not  present  itself.  Before  dream- 
ing of  opening  their  eyes  or  of  keeping  them 
closed  upon  the  data  of  a  problem  such  as 
that  of  purity,  which  engages  their  moral  ac- 
tivity, it  would  be  necessary  first,  without  de- 
lay, to  place  their  will  in  a  condition  of  legiti- 
mate defence,  by  a  special  education,  including 
both  the  culture  of  sentiments  proper  to  their 
age  and  the  practice  of  the  corresponding 
duties. 

Besides,  the  problem  of  training  in  purity 
should  be  confined  to  those  children  who  have 
been  blessed  with  a  strong  moral  education, 
and  whose  will,  already  habituated,  under  the 
inspiration  of  high  religious  motives  and  pro- 
found sentiments,  to  resist  the  whims  of  the 
senses,  finds  itself  able,  when  the  occasion 
arises,  to  make  head  against  the  special  diffi- 
culties that  may  come  from  revelations  rela- 
tive to  the  peculiar  practice  of  chastity. 

In  reality,  this  case  should  be  that  of  all 
children  in  our  Christian  families,  if  their 


74    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

parents  and  superiors  well  understood  their 
duties  as  educators,  and  neglected  nothing, 
from  the  cradle  up,  effectually  to  prepare  them 
for  all  the  eventualities  of  a  life  of  sense. 

In  this  case,  and  in  this  case  alone,  is  it 
better,  on  principle,  for  as  long  as  possible 
and  by  all  means  to  maintain  ignorance  where 
there  are  still  some  "mysteries"  of  chastity, 
even  though  one  sees  that  the  question  is  on 
the  point  of  presenting  itself  to  their  awak- 
ened imagination! — or  is  it  preferable  not  to 
evade  the  question,  and  to  reply  frankly  and 
clearly,  but  without  going  into  useless  tech- 
nical details,  and  measuring  one's  answer  ex- 
actly to  the  need  of  the  child? 

The  whole  question  is  there. 

I  have  already  noted  that  certain  educators 
are  rather  inclined,  even  at  this  decisive  mo- 
ment for  the  future  of  a  child,  to  tie  tighter 
the  bandage  of  ignorance,  under  the  specious 
pretext  of  preserving  its  innocence. 

The  reason  that  they  give  is  that  "it  is  not 
advisable  to  expose  a  child  to  a  certain  dan- 
ger through  a  doubtful  motive."    "Now,  on 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    75 

the  one  hand,"  they  say,  "it  is  very  hard  to  de- 
termine with  certainty  when  it  is  necessary 
to  make  these  revelations  to  a  child ;  whereas, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  most  renowned  educa- 
tors affirm  that  every  anticipated  revelation 
which  is  not  necessary  creates  a  danger  that 
would  not  otherwise  exist.,, 

Doubtless,  "it  is  very  hard  to  determine 
with  certainty  when  it  is  necessary  to  make 
these  revelations  to  a  child";  but  the  uncer- 
tainty exists  only  in  theory,  in  the  question  of 
determining  at  what  exact  age  these  revela- 
tions ought  to  be  given  to  all  children,  with- 
out distinction. 

In  practice,  parents  who  follow  their  chil- 
dren closely  and  by  a  well  thought  out  moral 
education  have  succeeded  in  gaining  their  con- 
fidence, ordinarily  have  not  this  uncertainty. 
And  one  can  say  the  same  thing  of  the  con- 
fessor who  has  applied  himself  to  know  his 
young  penitent  thoroughly,  and  has  trained 
him  to  open  to  him  his  daily  needs. 

The  claim  that  "every  anticipated  revelation 
which  is  not  necessary  creates  a  danger  that 


76    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

would  not  otherwise  exist,"  is  another  matter. 
The  objection  is  poorly  put. 

For  we  are  not  exactly  concerned  with  the 
making  of  anticipated  and  unnecessary  reve- 
lations to  children,  but  with  determining 
whether  it  is  or  is  not  necessary,  at  a  certain 
moment  in  the  evolution  of  a  child — for  ex- 
ample, at  the  crisis  of  puberty  and  when  its 
imagination  is  in  a  ferment — to  make  these 
anticipated  revelations. 

Again  I  repeat  that  there  is  question  here 
only  of  well-bred  children  and  of  parents  or 
superiors  having  the  duty  of  fitting  the  Chris- 
tian education  of  their  will  to  the  continu- 
ally increasing  demands  upon  their  young  in- 
tellectual and  moral  activity.  It  is  only  in 
regard  to  these  children  that  one  can  legiti- 
mately ask  if  all  anticipated  revelation,  meas- 
ured exactly  by  the  natural  educators  of  the 
child,  having  a  knowledge  of  his  personal 
needs  and  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  "cre- 
ates a  danger  that  would  not  otherwise  ex- 


ist." 


For  the  day  will  at  last  come,  even  though 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    77 

the  child  grow  up  with  blindfold  eyes  in 
the  most  wholesome  conditions  of  interior  and 
exterior  life,  when  the  bandage  of  ignorance 
will  inevitably  fall  from  his  eyes. 

Let  us  grant  that  this  is  as  late  as  possible — 
at  eighteen,  for  instance.  Well,  then,  I  ask 
if,  at  this  moment,  the  young  man  whose  inno- 
cence has  been  safeguarded  by  an  exceptional 
ignorance  of  the  difficulties  surrounding  the 
practice  of  chastity  will  be  in  a  better  condi- 
tion to  acquire  this  virtue  than  the  child  who, 
informed  sooner  of  such  difficulties  by  its 
parents  or  spiritual  masters,  will  have  already 
passed  four  or  five  years  in  practising  and  de- 
veloping this  virtue? 

We  should  not  deceive  ourselves  with  words 
in  such  a  question  of  importance.  All  the 
world  agrees  that  there  is  innocence  and  in- 
nocence. There  is  the  negative  innocence  that 
is  not  the  virtue  of  chastity,  and  a  positive 
innocence  which  is  confused  with  it.  The 
one  is  preserved  in  an  atmosphere  of  igno- 
rance, the  other  is  born  and  grows  under  the 
sun  of  truth. 


78    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

We  should  make  a  mistake  to  oppose  one 
to  the  other,  as  if  in  every  state  of  the  case 
the  first  were  preferable  to  the  second,  or  the 
second  to  the  first. 

There  is  a  time  when  negative  innocence 
forces  itself  on  one.  This  is  in  the  first  moral 
preparation  of  the  child,  when  the  general 
education  of  his  will  is  far  preferable  to  a 
precocious  education  of  his  intellect  upon  a 
delicate  point  which  does  not  yet  interest  him, 
and  in  regard  to  which  he  is  not  sufficiently 
armed.  For  how  many  years  this  period  of 
moral  preparation,  this  kindergarten  of  chas- 
tity, ought  to  continue,  no  one  can  determine 
a  priori.  This  depends  upon  the  competency 
of  the  parents  and  the  precocity  of  the  child. 

But  we  suppose  a  child  who  is,  morally 
speaking,  as  well  prepared  as  possible,  and 
whose  will,  from  his  tenderest  infancy,  has 
been  habituated  to  resist  his  growing  pas- 
sions, to  subdue  his  anger,  to  conquer  his  lazi- 
ness, to  bridle  his  desire  of  independence,  to 
fight  against  softness,  jealousy,  vanity,  and 
other  moral  disorders  which  are  found  in  em- 


INNOCENCE  AND   IGNORANCE    79 

bryo  in  all  children.  It  is  understood  that 
in  regard  to  chastity  this  child  has  guarded 
his  innocence,  and  this  is  not  yet  placed  in 
question. 

But  now  suddenly  the  crisis  of  puberty 
comes  on. 

Under  the  dominion  of  physiological  trans- 
formations of  which  he  is  not  the  master,  he 
undergoes  sensible  impressions  whose  nature 
he  does  not  understand;  a  sort  of  moral  lan- 
guor invades  his  whole  being;  his  imagina- 
tion, until  then  taken  up  with  realities  and 
glutting  itself  with  things,  becomes  excited  in 
sleep;  at  irregular  intervals  his  heart  is  suf- 
focated with  anguish  and  his  mind  oppressed 
with  presentiments.  He  who  never  had  a 
care  begins  to  be  anxious  about  everything. 

Doubtless  he  does  not  yet  seek  very  far  un- 
der the  words  he  hears,  the  pictures  he  sees, 
the  silence  he  observes.  But  still  he  does  seek. 
He  loses  the  beautiful  carelessness  regarding 
everything  that  was  as  the  radiation  of  his  in- 
nocence, the  limpid  clearness  of  his  look,  the 
naivete  of  his  words  and  gestures.    In  short, 


J* 


80    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

he  passes  from  childhood  to  adolescence. 
Now,  in  the  opinion  of  all  educators,  this 
transition  is  not  without  danger.  This  is  why 
one  may  ask  if  this  is  not  the  time  to  make 
the  passage  also  from  negative  innocence, 
where  he  has  lived,  to  positive  innocence, 
where  he  is  called  to  live;  and  if  the  chastity 
that  he  can  be  made  to  acquire  in  knowledge 
of  the  cause,  with  all  the  precautions  due  to 
his  age  and  inexperience,  will  not  be  of  much 
greater  assistance  to  him  than  that  which  he 
has  practised  until  now,  without  taking  ac- 
count of  the  matter? 

To  reply  to  this  question  it  is  necessary  to 
say  a  word  about  the  virtue  of  chastity  among 
adolescents  and  adults.  Chastity,  declare  the 
theologians,  is  a  virtue  whose  object  is  to  bind 
the  senses  to  the  demands  of  reason  in  the 
domain  of  sensible  emotions,  in  order  to  keep 
them  from  degenerating  into  sensual  emotions, 
which,  sought  for  themselves,  excite  the  flesh 
at  the  expense  of  the  spirit. 

The  exercise  of  this  virtue  evidently  sup- 
poses in  him  who  practises  it  a  certain  knowl- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    81 

edge  of  its  object.  To  govern  by  the  light  of 
reason,  under  the  impulsion  of  a  right  will, 
sensible  emotions  whose  development  does  not 
always  depend  on  us,  it  is  necessary  for  us  in 
a  certain  way  to  have  passed  through  these 
emotions.  At  the  least,  there  is  required  a 
concept  in  order  to  concentrate  upon  it  our 
ideas,  and  to  acquire,  by  the  repetition  of  con- 
trary acts,  the  habitual  force  which  permits 
the  will  to  master  the  emotions,  and  to  resist 
them  upon  the  slope  of  special  and  violent 
joys  where  they  would  hurry  it  on. 

But  it  is  clear  that  the  knowledge  of  these 
emotions  of  the  flesh,  since  a  word,  an  image, 
or  a  sensible  impression  may  arouse  a  continu- 
ous stream  of  emotions  in  the  adolescent,  can- 
not by  itself  be  a  guarantee  against  them.  The 
knowledge  of  4the  object  of  chastity  does  not 
cause  in  us  the  corresponding  virtue;  it  is 
only  a  condition  of  its  acquisition  and  develop- 
ment. 

And,  further,  this  condition  is  only  realized 
if  the  will  is  exercised  on  a  subject  regard- 
ing which  it  has  been  previously  prepared  to 


82    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

resist  all  the  suggestions  of  sense,  even  before 
suspecting  the  existence  of  those  pertaining  to 
chastity. 

What,  then,  gives  to  chastity  the  power  of 
becoming  this  habitual  force  of  resistance  to 
the  carnal  emotions  in  a  young  man  who  is 
passing  from  childhood  to  adolescence,  from 
negative  to  positive  innocence?  Ordinarily  it 
is  the  repetition  of  corresponding  acts  of  chas- 
tity. 

It  is  the  same,  indeed,  with  habits  of  soul 
as  with  habits  of  body.  They  are  acquired  and 
strengthened  by  exercise.  By  repeating  move- 
ments and  applying  his  body  to  exercise,  a 
soldier  acquires  the  muscular  resistance  and 
nimbleness  that  make  him  strong.  Similarly, 
moral  strength  is  gained  by  bending  his  will 
and  his  sensible  tendencies,  by  the  repetition 
of  such  acts  naturally. 

The  virtue  of  chastity  is  not  an  exception  to 
this  law. 

We  have  already  recalled  that  the  idea, 
thought,  or  sensation  inclines  to  the  corre- 
sponding act,   and  that  this  inclination  ex- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    83 

presses  itself  by  a  corresponding  impulse  of 
the  rational  or  animal  appetite,  otherwise 
called  the  will  or  the  senses. 

Each  one  of  our  ideas  is  joined  to  a  sensa- 
tion. To  the  sensation  corresponds  an  instinc- 
tive impulse,  a  natural  tendency  to  realize  the 
act  represented  by  this  sensation,  so  long  as 
no  obstacle  intervenes.  Cataleptics,  hysterical 
and  nervous  persons,  whose  will  momentarily 
sleeps,  are  thus  at  the  mercy  of  the  sensa- 
tions one  suggests  to  them,  or  which  pene- 
trate to  the  field  of  their  consciousness.  It  is 
the  same  with  normal  persons,  and  particu- 
larly with  children,  whenever  their  will  is 
powerless  to  dominate  their  instinctive  move- 
ments of  sense. 

Smothered  in  sensation  from  childhood,  the 
struggle  for  the  ideal  life  can  save  us  from 
becoming  slaves.  Our  first  contact  with  things 
is  a  sensible  contact.  Even  our  highest  ideas 
are  bound  up  with  sensations.  Hence  the  dif- 
ficulty of  escaping  the  automatic  fruition  of 
sensible  inclinations  and  of  acts  that  follow 
from  them. 


84    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

The  mere  natural  tendency  to  seek  moral 
good  that  we  find  in  ourselves  at  birth,  and 
which  Baptism  accentuates,  does  not  enable 
the  will  easily  to  resist  impulses  of  the  senses. 
This  tendency  must  be  strengthened  by  acts, 
I  would  say  by  continual  desires,  especially 
during  youth,  which  is  at  the  same  time  the 
age  of  strongest  sense  impressions. 

If,  then,  ideas  as  well  as  sensations  incline 
the  will  to  the  acts  that  they  represent,  the  art 
of  education  will  consist  in  implanting  early 
in  the  domain  of  conscience  the  ideas  that  one 
wants  realized — as,  for  instance,  that  of  chas- 
tity— and  in  driving  away  at  the  same  time  the 
contrary  ideas. 

And  since  there  are  no  ideas  that  are  not 
bound  up  with  sensations,  without  a  corre- 
sponding impulse  of  the  sensible  appetite,  the 
voluntary  repetition  of  these  same  acts  will 
indissolubly  associate  all  these  elements:  the 
ideas  with  sensations,  those  with  sensible  ten- 
dencies with  the  will,  so  that  the  free  will, 
by  an  easily  understood  counter-attack,  helps 
itself  by  the  spontaneous  impulses  of  sense  that 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    85 

it  will  have  limbered  and  organized,  and  so 
realizes,   as  if  naturally,  the  end  proposed. 

For  if  experience  shows  that  every  idea,  in 
all  consciousness,  tends  to  provoke  action,  it 
does  not  the  less  show  that  the  act  provoked 
by  the  idea,  when  it  is  methodically  repeated, 
in  its  turn  accentuates  the  idea's  power  of  ex- 
citation. It  is  in  this  way  that  manias  and 
vicious  habits  of  all  sorts  are  engendered. 

Why?  Because  not  only  does  the  repetition 
of  an  act  suppress  the  possible  resistance  of 
the  faculty  acting,  but  creates  in  it  new  ten- 
dencies to  action,  a  need,  in  some  sort  natural, 
of  action  in  such  or  such  a  direction. 

Suppose,  then,  that  in  place  of  having  an 
automatic  fruition  of  our  tendencies  under  the 
influence  of  ideas  or  of  sensations,  we  make 
this  fruition  voluntary — in  other  words,  that 
we  prepare  and  determine  it  in  favor  of  chosen 
and  specified  moral  ideas — the  facility  of 
placing  the  act  correlative  to  these  ideas  will 
be  the  same,  materially  speaking,  but  their 
moral  value  will  have  changed. 

Being  free,  they  will  have  a  human  value ; 


86    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

being  easy,  they  will  create,  even  by  their  repe- 
tition, in  the  faculties  that  produce  them,  the 
moral  habits  called  virtues. 

One  sees  now  where  this  analysis  leads,  in 
the  subject  under  consideration.  In  a  child 
whose  parents  have  early  prepared  him,  un- 
der the  luminous  influence  of  Christian  ideas 
and  of  the  example  of  Christ,  who  has  em- 
bodied them  in  a  living  fashion,  to  will,  think, 
speak,  and  act  conformably  to  these  ideas  and 
to  the  example  of  the  divine  Model,  it  will 
not  be  very  difficult,  when  the  time  comes, 
to  implant  the  idea  of  purity. 

It  will  suffice  artfully  to  disengage  him 
from  the  sense  impressions  themselves  that 
the  child  experiences  in  the  crisis  of  puberty, 
and  by  means  of  well-chosen  expressions  and 
images  to  proportion  the  content  to  the  ordi- 
narily unexacting  mentality  of  a  child. 

The  value,  already  proved  by  him,  of  the 
divine  motives  that  he  has  for  regulating  his 
thoughts,  his  words,  his  sentiments,  and  his  acts 
upon  the  life  and  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  of 
the  Infant  Saviour;  his  will's  power  of  re- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    87 

sistance  acquired  upon  all  the  difficult  points 
where  he  will  have  been  brought  to  concen- 
trate his  efforts;  the  suppleness  of  sensibility 
that  a  virile  education  will  have  helped  to  give 
him:  all  this  will  carry  him,  as  if  naturally, 
towards  the  ideas  of  purity  which  little  by  lit- 
tle will  be  suggested  to  him,  and  it  will  help 
him  to  realize  them. 

As  if  naturally,  I  have  said,  because  of  the 
habitual  character  that  clothes  the  virtue  of 
chastity,  acquired  by  the  repetition  of  the  acts, 
since  it  is  incontestable  that  the  habit,  rela- 
tively to  its  object,  is  in  us  as  a  second  nature. 

But  this  does  not  exclude  the  supernatural 
concurrence  of  grace.  On  the  contrary,  if 
you  reflect  that,  in  a  Christian  soul  acting  un- 
der the  impulse  of  divine  motives  of  con- 
duct, grace  penetrates  its  activity  to  the  mar- 
row and  supernaturalizes  it;  if  you  have  not 
lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  natural  gym- 
nastic proper  to  education  in  purity  finds  its 
necessary  and  efficacious  complement  in  the 
daily  practice  of  supernatural  exercises,  such 
as  prayer  and  the  Sacraments:  then  you  will 


88    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

without  difficulty  understand  what  power  of. 
resistance  in  the  struggle  to  maintain  his  in- 
nocence a  young  man  will  have  who  has  passed 
in  this  Christian  way  from  childhood  to  ado- 
lescence, from  negative  to  positive  innocence. 

Certainly  he  will  be  better  armed  upon  the 
dangerous  ground  of  chastity,  where  he  will 
fight  wisely,  than  the  adolescent  of  the  same 
age  whose  negative  innocence,  maintained  by 
ignorance,  hardly  permits  him  to  suspect  the 
difficulties  of  the  struggle,  and  will  find  him 
prepared  in  a  way  far  from  suitable  to  con- 
quer them. 

Reared  in  a  Christian  way,  he  will  assuredly 
be  in  a  better  condition  than  the  child  reared 
at  haphazard  to  resist  the  allurements  of  sense 
and  the  vicious  suggestions  from  without,  on 
the  day  when,  willy-nilly,  the  scales  of  igno- 
rance will  fall  from  his  eyes.  But  he  will 
be  less  prepared  than  the  youths  of  whom  we 
shall  speak,  voluntarily  chaste,  informed  long 
since  against  the  surprises  of  sense,  and  habitu- 
ated to  prevent  or  to  repress  them. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    89 

This,  therefore,  is  the  question  from  the 
point  of  view  of  educating  in  purity. 

Between  the  uncertain  and  relative  peril  of 
a  measured  and  progressive  initiation,  at  the 
hour  when  the  crisis  of  puberty  appears  in 
some  way  on  the  lips  of  the  child,  or  in  its 
eyes,  or  in  its  attitude  towards  disturbing  ques- 
tions, and  the  quasi-absolute  security  which 
attaches  to  the  virtue  of  chastity  in  a  young 
man  normally  initiated  by  his  parents  or  his 
confessor,  has  one  the  right  to  hesitate  an  in- 
stant? 

Yes,  reply  the  fearless  partisans  of  the 
method  of  silence.  Because,  in  the  transition 
from  negative  to  positive  innocence  the  peril 
of  initiation,  as  uncertain  and  relative  as  one 
chooses,  is  put  off  no  longer.  The  least  spark 
may  produce  a  sensual  explosion  in  the  child. 

This  would  occur,  indeed,  if — to  continue 
the  figure — the  powder  of  sense  were  not 
guarded. 

We  have  been  the  first  to  recall  that,  because 
of  original  sin  and  the  natural  weakness  of 
the  will,  the  moral  organism  of  a  child  finds 


90    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

itself  in  unstable  equilibrium.  We  have  even 
called  it  "instability,"  and  maintained,  against 
Dr.  Doleris,  in  the  light  of  faith  and  of  ex- 
perience, that  in  regard  to  chastity  all  chil- 
dren should  be  considered  as  abnormal. 

But  there  is  a  way  of  remedying  this  origi- 
nal "anomaly,"  and  of  giving  stability  to  the 
organism.  It  suffices  for  this  to  find  the  most 
that  is  possible  for  the  moral  education  of 
the  child,  and  to  habituate  his  will,  under  the 
objective  excitation  of  divine  motives  and 
with  the  subjective  concurrence  of  grace,  by 
the  incessant  repetition  of  virtuous  acts  pro- 
portioned to  his  weakness,  to  dominate  his 
sensibility,  and  to  place  him  in  face  of  it  as 
a  vigilant  and  armed  sentinel,  capable  of  pre- 
venting every  explosion.  What  Christian 
child  cannot  his  parents  or  teachers  or  con- 
fessor prepare  for  this  condition? 

If  this  previous  moral  education  were  im- 
possible, it  would  mean  despair  of  nature  and 
of  grace.  Fortunately,  experience  has  proved 
its  possibility,  and  that  in  a  very  great  de- 
gree.   Therefore,  in  regard  to  children  thus 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    91 

stable  and  well  brought  up,  can  one  still,  at 
the  crisis  of  puberty  and  the  formidable  tran- 
sition from  childhood  to  adolescence,  from 
negative  to  positive  innocence,  raise  the  scare- 
crow of  initiation? 

The  danger — if  danger  there  be — seems  to 
us  more  theoretical  than  practical. 

For,  on  the  one  hand,  no  matter  how  we 
speak  or  act,  there  will  come  a  day,  whether 
it  be  at  thirteen  or  fifteen  or  twenty  years, 
when  the  child  who  knows  nothing  ought  to 
know;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  initiation 
of  which  we  speak  has  nothing  in  common 
with  a  technical  initiation,  which,  by  its  very 
crudity,  easily  plays  the  role  of  explosive. 

It  is  not  necessary,  indeed,  to  determine 
theoretically  the  age  and  the  amount  of  initia- 
tion. This  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  question 
exclusively  practical,  and  relative  to  the  in- 
finite variety  of  circumstances  which  char- 
acterize the  biological  and  psychological  evo- 
lution of  children. 

Let  us  take  some  particular  child — boy  or 
girl — in  a  Christian  family,  and  therefore 


92    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

well  brought  up;  let  us  take  him  at  the  age 
when  he  is  passing  through  the  crisis  of  pu- 
berty; let  us  suppose,  in  virtue  of  this  crisis, 
and  of  signs  easily  recognizable  by  an  experi- 
enced and  sympathetic  regard,  that  certain 
questionings  are  presenting  themselves  to  his 
spirit  and  his  imagination,  and  let  us  ask  our- 
selves if  it  is  truly  a  peril  to  reply,  taking 
account  in  each  particular  case  of  the  men- 
tality of  the  child;  or  if  the  peril  will  not  be 
greater  to  wish  to  delay  indefinitely,  and  to 
leave  to  chance  the  care  of  substituting  itself 
for  the  guidance  of  the  educators? 

Certain  educators  reply  to  this,  that  in  a 
matter  of  such  importance  it  is  much  better 
to  trust  to  God  than  to  men,  and,  in  default 
of  the  natural  virtue  of  chastity  which  is  ac- 
quired by  human  acts  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  case,  to  count  upon  the  corresponding  su- 
pernatural virtue  which  God  Himself  infuses 
into  the  souls  of  children  at  Baptism,  which 
He  directly  increases  in  them  during  the 
course  of  their  life  unless  they  fail,  and  which, 
because  of  its  divine  transcendence,  is  advan- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    93 

tageously  called  upon  to  replace  the  natural 
virtue. 

Let  us  see  what  is  to  be  thought  of  this  ex- 
planation. 

//.     Reciprocal  Influence  of  Nature  and  of 
Grace  in  Educating  to  Purity 

This,  then,  is  what  prompts  certain  educators 
to  delay  as  long  as  possible  the  danger  of  any 
initiation  whatsoever  in  the  matter  of  chas- 
tity. Every  moral  virtue,  they  say,  such  as 
temperance,  patience,  purity,  is  at  the  same 
time  a  natural  or  acquired  virtue  and  an  in- 
fused or  supernatural  virtue. 

As  a  natural  virtue,  it  is  acquired  by  the 
repetition  of  its  acts.  As  a  supernatural  qual- 
ity, the  same  moral  virtue  has  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent source.  It  is  infused  into  the  soul  in 
Baptism  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Anterior  to  all 
exercise,  it  is  not  by  exercise  that  it  grows, 
but  by  the  same  principle  which  gave  it  birth 
— the  Holy  Ghost. 

There  is  much  truth  in  this  analysis  of  the 


94    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

natural  and  supernatural  virtues.  But  if  it 
were  entirely  correct,  there  would  be  reason, 
in  its  name,  of  opposing  every  method  of  ini- 
tiation in  the  domain  of  purity.  Because  there 
would  be  nothing  to  do,  under  this  hypothesis, 
except  to  refer  directly  to  God  the  care  of 
increasing  in  children  the  supernatural  vir- 
tue of  chastity,  and  of  proportioning  the  power 
of  resistance  to  the  needs  of  preserving  their 
innocence  in  an  atmosphere  of  dense  igno- 
rance. All  initiation,  even  painless,  would  be 
useless,  and  parents  would  have  nothing  to  do 
but  cross  their  arms. 

But  is  this  analysis  exact? 

We  believe  that  not  only  is  it  incorrect  theo- 
retically, but  that  it  is  dangerous  practically.1 

Evidently  these  educators  confuse  the  ob- 
jective relations  that  sustain  the  supernatural 
virtues  with  the  corresponding  natural  vir- 
tues and  their  subjective  conditions  of  realiza- 
tion. 

It  is  very  true  that  the  supernatural  virtues 
and  the  natural  virtues  have  not  the  same  ob- 
ject,  although  they  are  practised  upon  the 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    95 

same  matter.  The  latter  helps  us  to  realize  an 
ideal  of  an  honorable  man;  the  former,  on 
the  contrary,  are  designed  to  "make  us  gods." 
Consequently,  one  may  very  truthfully  main- 
tain that  the  natural  virtues  are  acquired  and 
grow  by  the  repetition  of  appropriate  acts, 
whereas  the  supernatural  surpass  nature  at 
every  point. 

But  is  the  direct  and  divine  increase  of  the 
supernatural  virtues,  like  their  origin,  uncon- 
ditional? Can  one  maintain  that  God  aug- 
ments the  supernatural  virtues  in  us  without 
our  co-operation,  or,  in  other  words,  that  there 
is  no  way,  by  exercise,  in  which  they  grow? 

Doubtless  the  exercise  of  the  supernatural 
virtues  is  not  the  cause  of  their  increase,  since 
it  is  God  who  directly  augments  them.  But 
does  He  unconditionally  augment  them  in  us, 
or  on  condition  that  we  exercise  them? 

If  this  were  true,  if  the  doctrine  of  the 
parallelism  of  the  virtues  were  exact,  what 
influence  could  grace  have  on  nature?  How 
could  be  effected  this  vital  incorporation  of 


96    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Christian  truth  with  our  tendencies  which  is 
a  necessary  condition  of  its  efficiency? 

Virtue,  whether  supernatural  or  natural,  is 
merely  a  determination  of  our  active  powers 
— intelligence,  will,  or  sensation.  It  modifies 
them,  naturally  or  supernaturally,  in  the  sense 
of  the  object  that  it  proposes;  it  condenses  or 
concentrates  their  activity  upon  a  precise 
point,  instead  of  abandoning  them  to  their 
original  indetermination. 

But  who  does  not  see  that  virtue,  thus  sub- 
jectively viewed,  is  inseparable  from  the  fac- 
ulty that  it  modifies  or  determines;  that  if  it 
matters  little,  in  theory,  whether  it  be  given 
supernaturally  by  God  at  first,  or  whether  it 
be  acquired  naturally  by  us,  it  is  on  the  con- 
trary incomprehensible,  in  practice,  that  vir- 
tue be  developed  apart  from  the  power  or 
the  faculty  which  is  endowed  with  it? 

Besides,  this  is  not  to  say  that  God  does 
not  directly  increase  in  us  the  supernatural 
virtues,  but  only  that  He  does  not  so  increase 
them  except  on  condition  that  we  exercise 
them,  and  that,  under  the  impulse  of  charity, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    97 

we  posit  without  ceasing  virtuous  acts  of  the 
intellect,  the  will,  and  the  senses,  more  and 
more  intense  and  meritorious. 

In  a  child  who  has  not  yet  reached  the  age 
of  reason,  and  on  this  account  does  not  posit 
human  acts  of  the  will,  the  supernatural  vir- 
tues received  in  Baptism  ordinarily  do  not 
grow.  When,  however,  he  reaches  the  age 
of  reason,  God  augments  these  virtues  in  him 
in  proportion  to  the  virtuous  acts  which  he 
produces  under  the  doubly  illuminating  influ- 
ence of  his  reason  and  of  his  faith,  and  under 
the  warm  impulsion  of  charity.2 

The  question,  then,  is  not  to  know  if  the 
divine  power,  under  the  species  of  the  super- 
natural virtues,  is  all-powerful  in  itself  and 
for  the  service  of  God;  it  is  too  evident  that 
it  is.  But  does  it  keep  this  omnipotence  for 
our  service,  and,  if  so,  on  what  conditions? 

Under  the  hypothesis,  repugnant  to  com- 
mon sense,  that  God,  in  giving  us  His  grace, 
has  reserved  to  Himself  the  care  of  working 
out  our  salvation,  without  requiring  any  co- 
operation on  our  part,  nothing  is  easier  than 


98    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

to  live  Christianly.  But  where,  then,  would 
be  the  merit? 

The  fact  is  that  God  has  decided  otherwise. 
He  has  not,  it  is  true,  spared  us  His  grace; 
but  this  is  always  on  the  express  condition  that 
we  use  it. 

He  Himself  still  acts  personally  in  us,  but 
by  adapting,  one  may  say,  His  activity  to 
ours ;  by  leaving  to  us,  under  the  efficacious  in- 
flux of  His  grace,  the  merit  of  initiative  and 
liberty;  by  subjecting,  consequently,  the  di- 
rect growth  of  the  supernatural  virtues  to  the 
law  of  human  action. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  the  theologians  rea- 
sonably maintain  that  if  grace  transforms  us, 
it  does  not  deform  us;  that  if  it  deifies  us,  it 
does  not  dehumanize  us. 

In  making  us  Christians,  God  always  re- 
spects our  liberty  as  upright  men.  The  su- 
pernatural virtues  are  from  Him;  they  are 
given  freely  to  us  for  our  service,  and  from- 
Him  comes  or  not  their  increase.  It  is  very 
good  to  count  upon  God's  grace,  but  it  is 
better  to  realize  that  God  counts  on  us. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    99 

Before  being  a  Christian,  and  in  order  to 
become  one,  it  is  necessary  to  live  as  an  hon- 
orable man.  Let  us  always  well  understand 
this  formula.  It  does  not  mean  that  up  to 
a  certain  age  it  is  necessary  to  practise  ex- 
clusively the  natural  virtues  that  make  a  man 
honorable,  and  then  to  busy  ourselves  only 
with  the  exercise  of  supernatural  virtues 
proper  to  Christians.  The  reader  is  too  intel- 
ligent to  misunderstand  us  in  this  way. 

There  are  not  in  us  two  distinct  beings  sep- 
arated by  a  closed  wall,  man  on  one  side  and 
Christian  on  the  other,  as  would  seem  to  be 
indicated  by  the  doctrine  of  parallelism  of 
the  virtues  mentioned  above.  It  is  the  same 
person  who  at  the  same  time  and  in  all  cir- 
cumstances, from  the  age  of  reason  to  the 
grave,  must  force  himself  to  realize  the  hu- 
man ideal  and  the  Christian  ideal,  the  one 
eminently  containing  the  other. 

But  what  should  be  noted  here  is  the  inti- 
mate, vital  connection  which  exists  between 
the  development  of  the  supernatural  virtues 


ioo    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

and  the  corresponding  human  and  natural 
acts. 

Experience  shows  us  that  charity,  for  ex- 
ample— and  by  it  all  the  other  Christian  vir- 
tues— increases  or  diminishes  in  proportion  to 
the  intensity  or  the  weakness  of  the  human 
acts  by  which  we  exercise  it.  It  does  not  fol- 
low that  it  is  these  human  acts  of  charity  that 
directly  increase  the  virtue  itself  of  chanty, 
as  if  merely  an  acquired  human  virtue  were 
concerned;  but  it  does  follow  that  God  di- 
rectly increases  charity  in  us  in  proportion  to 
the  merit  and  the  intensity  of  the  human  acts 
of  charity  which,  thanks  to  it,  we  produce. 

Further,  it  follows  in  a  more  general  way 
that  the  development  or  diminution  of  the 
Christian  virtues,  notwithstanding  the  tran- 
scendence of  their  origin,  is  intimately  bound 
up  with  their  exercise ;  that  is,  with  the  greater 
or  less  intensity  of  the  acts,  at  the  same  time 
human  and  divine,  which  emanate  from  them. 

Finally,  it  follows  that  we  cannot  exercise 
these  virtues  without  a  knowledge  of  the  case, 
or,    in   other   words,   without    taking   exact, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    101 

though  not  always  complete,  account  of  their 
object,  and  of  the  circumstances  of  their  reali- 
zation. For  if  the  supernatural  virtues  are 
infused,  their  object  is  not. 

Let  us  suppose  now  that  a  Christian  who 
for  thirty  years  has  exercised  Christian  char- 
ity, and,  through  it,  advanced  in  other  vir- 
tues, happens  one  day  to  sin  mortally. 

It  is  of  faith  that  at  this  moment  he  will 
lose  at  one  stroke  charity  and  all  the  infused 
virtues.  Will  any  one  claim  that  this  Chris- 
tian, when  he  recovers  grace  by  means  of  for- 
giveness of  his  sin,  will  be,  as  regards  the 
exercise  of  charity,  in  the  same  condition  that 
he  was  thirty  or  even  ten  years  before,  ex- 
posed to  the  same  danger  of  falling?  Evi- 
dently not. 

For  repetition  of  the  supernatural  acts  of 
charity  that  he  has  made  all  through  his  life, 
with  increasing  intensity,  will  not  only  merit, 
on  God's  part,  an  augmentation  of  grace,  but 
will  have  created  at  the  same  time  in  his  will 
a  quasi-natural  need  of  acting  supernatu- 
rally. 


102    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

The  repetition  of  these  superhuman  acts 
has  left  behind  them,  in  the  faculties  acting, 
a  permanent  human  disposition  that  does  not 
disappear  with  the  infused  virtues,  but  will 
serve  as  a  natural  foundation  when  God  again 
infuses  grace  into  the  soul.  Strengthened  by 
this  human  acquisition,  the  will,  regenerated 
by  grace,  will  again  naturally  and  easily  em- 
ploy its  supernatural  virtues.  God  Himself 
will  continue  to  increase  these  virtues,  but  the 
facility  of  exercising  them  enables  the  soul  to 
make  always  more  intense  acts  which  merit, 
on  the  part  of  God,  their  increase. 

It  is,  then,  in  this  sense,  and  in  this  sense 
only,  that  one  can  say  that  grace  acts  accord- 
ing to  nature,  and  that  the  acquired  or  natural 
virtues  facilitate  the  play  of  infused  or  super- 
natural virtues.  The  more  these  are  exercised, 
the  more  they  contribute  to  the  acquisition  of 
the  others  and  benefit  by  such  acquisition.  Be- 
cause it  is  clear  that  the  "human  residue"  (if 
I  may  be  allowed  the  expression)  of  the  long 
exercised  supernatural  virtues  facilitates  their 
intensive  development. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    103 

The  most  beautiful  building,  if  it  have  not 
a  solid  foundation,  is  at  the  mercy  of  a  gust  of 
wind.  The  strongest  oak,  transplanted  to  too 
shallow  soil,  perishes.  Similarly,  the  Chris- 
tian virtues  claim  from  us,  in  order  to  give 
them  their  full  value,  strong  human  substruc- 
tures. On  the  one  hand,  they  are  wonderful 
plants,  nourished  by  a  divine  sap ;  but,  on  the 
other,  they  remain  exotic  to  us.  If,  then,  we 
do  not  furnish  them,  in  the  conservatory  of 
our  soul,  a  soil  rich  in  natural  energy,  a  con- 
sistent humus,  the  least  breath  of  passion  that 
passes  over  them  will  beat  them  flat  and  uproot 
them.3 

Because  of  the  fire  of  concupiscence  that 
smoulders  in  all  of  us,  the  virtue  of  chastity, 
more  than  any  other  virtue,  is  subject  to  this 
law  of  growth.  Hence,  before  sowing  the 
ideal  seed,  under  the  form  of  initiation,  in  the 
soul  of  a  child,  its  educators  are  bound  to 
prepare  the  soil,  to  strengthen  and  to  enrich 
it.  This  is  the  object  of  the  preparatory  moral 
education  of  which  we  have  spoken. 

But  one  cannot  put  off  indefinitely  the  time 


.  ft>  W    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

P  of  sowing,  nor  leave  this  to  chance.  And 
since,  on  one  side,  the  supernatural  virtue  of 
purity,  to  have  its  effect,  is  conditioned,  even 
in  children,  by  exercise,  and,  on  the  other,  this 
cannot  take  place  by  the  repetition  of  acts  ex- 
cept by  a  knowledge  of  the  case,  why  do  not 
educators  profit — I  do  not  say  by  the  first  oc- 
casion offering — but  by  the  crisis  of  puberty 
to  sow  in  the  souls  of  children  with  art  and 
discretion  the  seed  of  truth  which  will  enable 
them  to  concentrate  on  this  delicate  point  the 
combined  efforts  of  nature  and  grace? 

Besides,  it  is  impossible  that  at  this  mo- 
ment God  should  not  come  to  the  help  of  the 
children  and  of  the  educators.  In  the  chil- 
dren this  sane,  progressive,  sustained  initia- 
tion, by  a  combined  action  of  nature  and  grace, 
will  always  be  less  dangerous  than  any  sort 
of  initiation  coming  to  them  from  it  matters 
not, where  and  under  a  vicious  form,  at  a  time 
when  they  least  expect  it,  and  when  they  will 
not  find  themselves  prepared  for  right  de- 
fence. 
Nevertheless,  the  partisans  of  silence  do  not 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    105 

yield.  Possessed  by  the  idea  that  the  first  ini- 
tiation, even  reduced  to  a  minimum,  is  calcu- 
lated to  imperil  the  innocence  of  every  child, 
whether  raised  in  a  Christian  way  or  not,  and 
persuaded  that  only  with  age  does  this  first 
initiation  (no  matter  whence  it  comes)  lose 
its  dangerous  character,  they  will  not  listen  to 
a  virtue  of  chastity,  natural  or  supernatural, 
which  can  only  be  acquired  and  developed  in 
the  light  of  knowledge,  and  they  prefer  to 
take  refuge  in  the  instinctive  sense  of  modesty, 
whose  instinctive  character  they  would  sup- 
plement by  reflection. 

III.     The  Sentiment  of  Modesty  in  Educat- 
ing to  Purity 

FoERSTER  has  noted  with  nicety  that  "in  our 
intellectualist  century  too  many  persons  have 
lost  the  power  of  comprehending  the  powerful 
defensive  instincts  of  the  unconscious  life, 
which  find  their  expression  in  the  sentiment  of 
modesty."4  And  if  he  intends  by  this  that 
one  has  not  the  right,  under  the  pretext  that 


106    INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

science  cures  everything,  to  attack  this  senti- 
ment by  gorging  children  with  technical  de- 
tails relative  to  the  exercise  of  chastity,  he  is 
perfectly  correct. 

Such  details,  exposed  crudely  and  without 
measure  to  children,  and  even  to  some  adults, 
whom  one  has  not  prepared  by  strengthening 
their  will  through  an  intensive  moral  educa- 
tion, are  of  a  nature  to  wound  modesty  and 
make  them  lose  their  moral  poise. 

But  let  us  remark  that  in  the  hypothesis  we 
assume  there  is  no  question  of  a  scientific  ini- 
tiation, and  that,  besides,  the  children  for 
whom  there  is  question  of  a  first  initiation 
have  been  raised  in  a  Christian  way  and  have 
become  capable  of  self-mastery. 

It  is  clear  that,  even  after  the  crisis  of  pu- 
berty, and,  in  every  case,  before  the  moral  edu- 
cation of  the  child  is  assured,  the  educators 
ought  jealously  to  respect  his  sentiment  of 
modesty.  "It  is  precisely  because  modesty  pre- 
serves the  sexual  field  from  the  full  knowl- 
edge which  reflection  throws,"  again  remarks 
Foerster,  "that  it  has  for  the  educator  and  for 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE    107 

the  hygienist  such  a  great  value  that  nothing 
will  ever  replace  it." 

The  sentiment  of  modesty  in  a  child  is  like 
the  instinct  of  "wolf"  in  a  lamb  which  has 
never  before  encountered  such  an  animal,  yet 
flees  at  its  approach.  The  child  divines  that 
there  is  for  him  in  the  field  of  life's  experi- 
ences a  "reserved  domain,"  and  instinctively 
keeps  on  the  outskirts  of  this  domain,  where 
he  flees  from  a  word,  an  image,  or  an  expres- 
sion which,  though  its  exact  sense  escapes 
him,  urges  him  on  in  spite  of  himself.  This 
instinctive  feeling  of  modesty,  even  those 
who  write  unrestrainedly  and  pose  as  the 
champions  of  "full  light,"  hold  in  respect  be- 
fore some  children. 

To  cultivate  this  sentiment  among  chil- 
dren, and  as  long  as  the  crisis  of  puberty  does 
not  put  any  troubling  question  to  their  spirit, 
is  a  mark  of  wisdom.  In  Scripture  there  are 
some  terrible  words  addressed  to  those  who, 
without  reason  or  through  malice,  expose 
themselves  "to  scandalize  one  of  these  little 
ones." 


108  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Nevertheless,  no  one  among  us  can  keep  a 
child  from  passing  from  the  shadows  of  in- 
stinct to  the  mature  light  of  reflection.  A 
day  comes  when,  in  virtue  of  the  manifold 
influences  of  one's  nature,  certain  formidable 
questions  propose  themselves  to  his  spirit,  if 
not  in  precise  terms,  at  least  in  vague  ones, 
and  whose  indefiniteness  even  accentuates  the 
peril. 

Is  any  one  sure  that  at  this  moment  the  in- 
stinct of  modesty  is  a  sufficient  weapon  in 
his  hand?  Will  it  not  be  wiser  to  ally  this 
instinct  with  reflection? 

The  feeling  of  modesty,  indeed,  is  not,  as 
some  seem  to  think,  exclusively  the  expression 
of  the  unconscious  life.  In  other  words,  the 
consciousness  of  evil,  or  rather  of  moral  dan- 
ger, may  ally  itself  perfectly  with  this  sen- 
timent in  some  delicate  and  well-reared  souls. 

It  is  necessary  to  have  the  cult  of  modesty, 
but  not  the  superstition.  Does  one  infalli- 
bly lose  this  sentiment  in  acquiring  an  exact, 
if  not  complete,  notion  of  things  about  which 
it  is  concerned?    Does  modesty,  whose  very 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  109 

name  evokes  the  idea  of  whiteness,  resemble 
the  snow  of  the  streets  that  melts  at  the  first 
ray  of  the  sun;  or  does  it  not  recall  rather 
the  snow  of  the  mountain-tops  that  the  full 
sun  cannot  penetrate? 

For  my  part,  I  think  that  a  certain  teaching 
of  young  men  and  young  women  upon  ques- 
tions that  the  crisis  of  puberty  brings  before 
their  imagination  or  into  their  hearts  with  an 
extreme  sharpness  is  perfectly  compatible  with 
a  parallel  education  of  modesty.  I  believe 
that  there  is  a  way  of  drawing  the  attention 
of  children  and  of  adolescents  to  certain  physi- 
ological and  psychological  manifestations 
proper  to  their  age  and  their  sex,  while  at 
the  same  time  cultivating  their  instinct  of 
modesty.  And  it  is  not  necessary  for  this  to 
enter  into  useless  technical  details;  a  common- 
sense  teaching,  utilizing  current  words,  and 
exactly  adapted  to  the  weak  intellectual  de- 
mands of  children  in  these  matters,  is  perfectly 
sufficient. 

For  example,  in  the  mouth  of  a  truly  Chris- 
tian mother,  careful  of  the  spiritual  interests 


no  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

of  her  son  or  daughter,  such  teaching  is 
clothed  with  modesty  without  losing  anything 
of  its  relative  and  intended  precision.  There 
will  be  in  the  attitude  of  the  mother  at  this 
solemn  hour  a  sentiment  of  responsibility  and 
an  instinctive  appreciation  of  the  needs  of  her 
child  that  will  dictate  to  her  the  necessary 
words,  and  an  accent  of  goodness  that  will  em- 
phasize the  moral  import.  The  child  will 
remain  a  long  time  impressed,  and,  the  re- 
membrance of  the  gravity  of  his  mother  being 
associated  in  his  mind  with  the  things  re- 
vealed, his  modesty  will  not  suffer  at  all,  but 
rather  be  strengthened. 

Let  me  repeat  that  everything  depends  upon 
the  way.  But  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  think 
that  this  manner  is  not  within  the  reach  of 
almost  all  mothers  who  from  the  first  day 
have  presided  over  the  physical  and  moral  de- 
velopment of  their  children;  who  have  fol- 
lowed closely  the  unfolding  of  all  their  soul- 
needs;  who,  in  place  of  satisfying  all  the  ca- 

*  prices  of  their  children,  have  accustomed  them 

*  to  conquer  themselves ;  who,  at  each  new  diffi- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  in 

culty,  have  helped  them  to  victory  by  appeal- 
ing to  all  the  resources  of  religion,  of  their 
heart,  by  cultivating  their  piety,  by  urging 
them  to  receive  the  Sacraments — in  short,  by 
organizing  this  pedagogy  of  chastity  which 
prepares  them  in  a  close  way  for  the  passage 
from  childhood  to  adolescence,  from  negative 
to  positive  innocence. 

That,  in  fact,  too  many  parents  do  not  raise 
their  children  in  this  way,  and  are  more  oc- 
cupied in  "sissifying"  than  in  "virilizing" 
them;  that  in  many  of  our  colleges  and  in- 
stitutions religious  education  is  not  yet  inte- 
gral, and  that  sentiment  plays  a  bigger  part 
than  intellect  and  will :  this  is  a  remark  of  pub- 
lic notoriety  and  eminently  regrettable.  But 
this  assertion  of  fact  does  not  touch  upon  the 
question  of  principle. 

Doubtless  it  is  necessary  to  conclude  from 
it  that  parents  and  superiors  are  bound  in  con- 
science to  change  their  method  of  education, 
or  rather  to  perfect  it,  in  early  habituating 
their  children  to  struggle  against  their  ten- 
dencies, their  caprices,  and  their  ease;  to  place 


ii2  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

their  senses  under  the  dominion  of  their  will ; 
voluntarily  to  utilize  their  passions  in  place  of 
abandoning  themselves  to  the  force  of  their 
inertia,  and  to  do  this  with  all  the  resources 
of  grace  and  for  the  love  of  Christ,  centre  and 
model  of  all  Christian  life. 

But  one  has  not  the  right  to  conclude  that 
"the  true  principle  in  the  matter  of  educating 
to  purity,  if  one  must  give  one,  is  that  of 
silence  and  not  of  initiation";  nor  to  pretend, 
in  generalizing  this  principle,  that  "ignorance 
and  piety  are  the  two  guardians  of  virtue." 

Not  only  is  this  untenable  theoretically,  but 
nothing  is  more  dangerous  practically. 

Of  two  things,  one  must,  indeed,  be  true: 
either  the  child  whose  education  in  purity  is 
at  stake  has  not  been  raised  in  a  Christian 
manner — that  is,  has  not  received  the  prepara- 
tory moral  education  of  the  will  that  efficiently 
arms  it  against  the  real  or  imaginary  danger 
of  certain  anticipated  revelations  (in  this  case, 
if  there  is  yet  time,  his  will  ought  to  be 
strengthened  by  a  pedagogy  of  chastity  be- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  113 

fore  enlightening  his  intellect  on  the  special 
subject  of  this  virtue)  ;  or  the  child,  on  the 
contrary,  has  received  this  preparatory  educa- 
tion, and  then  it  is  necessary  to  choose  be- 
tween a  measured  and  progressive  initiation 
adapted  by  his  educators  to  his  moral  and  in- 
tellectual needs  of  the  moment,  or  a  chance 
initiation,  which,  brutal  and  unexpected,  may 
destroy  in  a  moment  the  results  of  many  years 
of  effort. 

Between  these  two  initiations,  has  one  a 
right  to  hesitate?  This  right,  we  have  seen, 
is  hardly  maintainable  in  principle.  It  is  not 
maintainable  in  fact  when  the  social  circum- 
stances accompanying  the  evolution  of  a  child 
multiply  at  pleasure  around  him  the  sources 
of  vicious  revelations  and  the  chances  of  an 
explosion  in  his  senses.  Now,  who  would  dare 
to  assert  that  this  is  not  the  case  to-day  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  children  in  all  classes 
of  society? 

Never  were  the  chances  for  an  unforeseen 
and  vicious  initiation,  in  what  concerns  the 


ii4  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

purity  of  children,  greater  than  to-day. 
Never,  consequently,  was  the  necessity  of  a 
voluntary  and  sane  initiation  on  the  part  of 
their  educators  imposed  with  greater  weight. 

1  Taken  altogether,  this  theory  fails  in  every  case  to 
conform  to  the  doctrine  of  St.  Thomas.  For  St.  Thomas, 
it  is  God  who  directly  increases  grace  in  us,  but  on  two 
conditions:  on  condition  of  the  reception  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  on  condition  of  the  exercise  of  our  infused 
graces  under  the  movement  of  charity,  in  which  all  our 
virtues  are  combined.  A  little  baptized  child  who  re- 
ceives the  Eucharist  without  well  understanding  what 
it  is  doing  receives  an  increase  of  grace  because  of  the 
efficacy  of  the  Sacraments,  which  always  work  of  them- 
selves when  no  positive  obstacle  is  placed  in  their  way. 
But  ordinarily,  according  to  St.  Thomas,  God  propor- 
tions the  graces  to  the  merit  and  intensity  of  our  super- 
natural acts.  Doubtless  these  acts  can  contribute  to  the 
increase  of  charity  only  as  they  are  meritorious — that  is 
to  say,  in  so  far  as  they  proceed  from  charity;  but  to 
increase  charity  it  is  not  sufficient  that  they  be  merito- 
rious; charity  is  not  augmented  by  God  except  in  pro/ 
portion  to  the  intensity  of  the  meritorious  acts.  The 
reason  is  that  virtues,  even  supernatural  ones,  are  modifi- 
cations of  our  powers,  and  cannot  ordinarily  increase 
except  according  to  the  manner  of  the  powers  that  they 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  115 

use;  that  is  to  say,  by  the  repetition  of  acts  proportioned 
in  intensity.  It  is,  indeed,  hard  to  understand  how  a  less 
intense  act  of  charity,  were  it  meritorious,  contributes 
to  the  increase  of  charity.  It  is  contrary  to  nature;  and 
if  one  admits,  ordinarily,  that  grace  conforms  to  nature, 
one  comprehends  all  the  danger  there  would  be  in  main- 
taining that  it  is  not  by  exercise  that  the  supernatural 
virtues  increase. 

1  am  not  ignorant  that  Suarez,  who  admits  that  super- 
natural virtues  increase  through  exercise,  pretends  that 
it  matters  not  what  act  of  charity,  even  though  of  the 
least  intensity,  provided  only  it  be  meritorious,  helps 
to  increase  grace.  But  to  dare  to  maintain  that  his 
thought  conforms  with  that  of  St.  Thomas,  it  is  necessary 
to  contend  that  on  this  point  St.  Thomas  is  not  clear. 
Suarez  is  alone  in  such  an  opinion,  or  almost  so.     Here 

are  the  passages  in  St.  Thomas  which  those  interested  in      5^, 
these  questions  may  profitably  consult:  II,  ii,  2;  XXIV,    *^ 
a.  6;  I,  ii,  2;  CXIV,  a.  8  ad  3 ;  II  Sent.,  dist.  XXVII,  q. 
I,  a.  V  ad  3;  I  Sent.,  dist.  XVII,  q.  II,  a.  3. 

2  Here  I  except  the  case  where  the  grace  increases  by 
means  of  Sacraments  received ;  but  the  sacramental  graces 
themselves  are  ordinarily  for  action — that  is,  they  have 
for  their  end  to  make  us  posit  more  intense  meritorious 
actions,  which  will  contribute  to  the  increase  of  charity, 
thanks  to  their  merit  and  intensity. 

3  We  shall  have  occasion  to  return  to  this  point  more 
at  length,   and   to   illustrate  this  doctrine  by  some  ex- 


u6  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

amples,  when  we  indicate  the  practical  way  in  which  we 
can  facilitate  the  exercise  of  supernatural  virtues  by  the 
help  of  the  corresponding  natural  virtues.  (Cf.  Chap- 
ter V.) 

4  Op.  cit.,  pp.  6 1  et  seq. 


CHAPTER   IV 

IGNORANCE  OF  TO-DAY  AND  INNOCENCE  OF 
TO-MORROW 

FROM  our  preceding  analyses  two  con- 
clusions have  already  appeared  with  a 
certain  clearness.    Let  us  recall  them  briefly. 

The  first  regards  the  employment  of  the  sci- 
entific method  pure  and  simple  in  the  matter 
of  chastity.  Used  alone,  without  preparatory 
or  parallel  education  of  the  will,  this  method 
cannot  help  being  dangerous,  whether  it  deal 
with  individual  education  in  purity,  or,  a  for- 
tiori, with  collective  education. 

Further,  even  under  the  hypothesis  of  a 
preparatory  or  parallel  moral  education,  the 
scientific  method  remains  inapplicable  and, 
even  were  this  not  so,  it  would  he  useless. 

It  is  inapplicable  because  neither  can  all 
the  natural  educators  use  it,  nor  are  the  ma- 

117 


u8  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

jority  of  children  capable  of  profiting  by  it. 

And  it  is  useless  if  one  will  carefully  ob- 
serve that  training  in  purity  is  more  an  art 
than  a  science,  being,  on  the  one  hand,  opposed 
to  collective  teaching,  and,  on  the  other,  es- 
sentially dependent,  from  an  individual  point 
of  view,  upon  an  assemblage  of  factors  where 
science  has  nothing  to  see  and  where  com- 
mon sense  and  a  certain  number  of  moral 
qualities  suffice. 

But,  in  default  of  a  dangerous,  inapplica- 
ble, and  useless  scientific  method,  does  it  fol- 
low that  we  must  have  recourse  to  the  method 
of  silence,  and  put  off  as  long  as  possible,  for 
all  children,  without  consideration  of  age, 
sex,  or  environment,  the  time  of  initiation? 

In  theory  the  method  of  silence  seems  pref- 
erable to  the  scientific  method.  There  is  at 
least  this  appreciable  advantage,  that  it  elimi- 
nates all  collective  initiation.  But,  from  the 
individual  point  of  view,  it  puts  the  difficulty 
off  without  solving  it.  Because,  willy-nilly,  a 
day  comes  when  children  must  be  initiated, 
whether  children  have  been  prepared  morally, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  119 

by  an  appropriate  education,  voluntarily  to 
resist  the  dangers  inherent  in  every  initiation, 
or  whether  they  have  not.  If  they  have  not, 
their  innocence  will  not  profit  by  a  prolonged 
ignorance.  If  they  have  been  prepared,  it 
is  in  this  moral  preparation,  and  not  in  their 
ignorance,  that  their  innocence  will  find  a  sup- 
port. 

Besides,  is  it  not  evident  that  the  very 
troubling  and  delicate  question  of  educating 
to  purity  concerns  the  will  more  than  the  in- 
tellect of  children,  and  that  having  asked  if 
it  be  better  to  tell  all  or  to  tell  nothing,  it 
is  necessary  to  prepare  them  morally  for 
what,  according  to  the  circumstances  and  their 
individual  need  of  knowledge,  one'thinks  him- 
self obliged  to  reveal  to  them  on  this  ques- 
tion? 

Thus  put,  the  problem  does  not  seem  in- 
soluble. For  it  is  stated,  in  the  first  place, 
in  individual,  not  collective  terms.  Besides, 
this  individual  moral  preparation  which  al- 
lows children,  if  the  case  arise,  to  guard 
against  the  dangers  of  a  measured  and  pro- 


120  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

gressive  initiation  is  merely  a  matter  of  time 
and  degree.  Begun  at  the  cradle  with  all  the 
resources  of  nature  and  of  grace,  by  consci- 
entious and  watchful  parents  and  superiors,  it 
enables  the  children  themselves,  during  the 
crisis  of  puberty  and  afterwards,  to  hold  their 
own  against  the  dangers  which  may  come  from 
a  relatively  forced  initiation.  By  relative  I 
mean  relative  to  each  child,  to  his  need  of 
knowing  the  difficulties  of  his  temperament, 
and  the  different  circumstances  in  which  he 
is  placed. 

Doubtless  it  remains  true  that  all  initiation 
in  these  matters  implies  some  risk.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  know  if  a  prejudiced  silence,  un- 
der all  circumstances,  does  not  mean  more  dan- 
ger than  a  sane  initiation,  adapted  to  each 
particular  case,  under  the  condition  of  previ- 
ous morality  that  we  have  assumed. 

For  our  part,  we  believe  that,  on  princi- 
ple, the  will  of  the  child  being  since  its  birth 
prepared  by  an  intense  moral  and  religious 
training,  this  relative  and  determined  initia- 
tion will  always  be  preferable  to  an  absolute 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  121 

silence,  which  does  not  guarantee  against  all 
chance  of  vicious  initiation. 

In  practice,  in  the  actual  circumstances  of 
life,  we  think  that  no  serious  educator,  taking 
account  of  his  responsibility,  will  hesitate  a 
moment  between  the  hypothetical  danger  of  a 
sane  initiation,  made  by  those  who  love  the 
children  and  have  care  of  them,  and  the  quasi- 
certainty  of  a  vicious  initiation,  made  by  any 
chance  acquaintance  without  regard  for  the 
souls  of  the  children. 

7.    Social  Facts  and  Innocence 

MANY  psychologists  have  asked  why,  in  recent 
times,  certain  educators,  justly  busied  with  the 
question  of  educating  to  purity,  have  so  loudly 
praised  the  method  of  silence. 

There  are  many  reasons,  of  which  the  most 
weighty  and  important,  it  seems  to  me,  are 
drawn  from  the  manifest  exaggerations  of  the 
scientific  method.  But  still  among  these  lat- 
ter it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  secu- 
lar and  religious  educators.    The  former  have 


122  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

an  absolute  faith  in  the  efficiency  of  the  sci- 
entific method ;  the  latter  have  only  a  relative 
faith. 

Secular  educators  believe  that  a  scientific 
training  may  advantageously  supplant  a  moral 
education,  and  that  there  is  no  danger  in  giv- 
ing it  a  collective  character,  even  for  the 
youngest  and  without  distinction  of  sex.  In 
proof  of  this  they  appeal  to  a  purely  academic 
experience. 

Religious  educators,  better  informed  and 
more  experienced,  are  supported  by  the  whole 
tradition  of  the  Church  in  emphasizing  the 
education  of  the  will  as  contrasted  with  that 
of  the  intellect.  Nevertheless,  they  believe 
that  in  what  concerns  chastity  a  scientific  edu- 
cation ought  to  supplement  a  moral  training, 
and  not  the  least  among  them  are  not  opposed 
to  collective  teaching.  And  this  in  part  ex- 
plains the  violent  reaction  working  among  the 
advocates  of  silence. 

These  latter,  one  must  admit,  have  seen  only 
too  well  the  dangers  of  a  collective  scientific 
initiation  even  among  children  raised  in  a 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  123 

Christian  way.  They  are  convinced,  with  rea- 
son, that  the  psychology  of  groups  does  not 
obey  the  same  laws  as  the  individual  psychol- 
ogy, and  that  it  will  always  be  dangerous  to 
handle  certain  "explosives"  in  public.  For 
experience  has  amply  proved  that  serious  chil- 
dren and  young  people  do  not  exercise  an  in- 
fluence in  direct  proportion  to  their  numbers, 
if  indeed  it  does  not  diminish  in  the  same  ra- 
tio. The  fear  of  appearing  what  they  are  will 
keep  most  (excepting  the  best)  young  folks 
from  showing  themselves  to  be  what  they 
should;  and  educators  must  always  take  ac- 
count of  this  strange  but  undeniable  attitude. 
Besides,  it  has  not  been  demonstrated  that 
an  individual  scientific  education  should  be  a 
necessary  complement  of  a  vigorous  moral 
education,  partly  because  of  its  technical  as- 
pect and  its  inability  to  influence  the  will  of 
the  children  at  the  same  time  that  it  opens  the 
gate  of  knowledge,  and  partly  because  of  the 
notorious  incapacity  of  the  majority  of  educa- 
tors to  give  this  technical  teaching,  and  of  the 
majority  of  children  to  receive  it  intelligently. 


124  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

But  it  is  not  necessary,  in  rejecting  the  sci- 
entific method,  to  go  to  extremes  and  to  op- 
pose it  with  a  method  of  silence.  Between 
science  and  ignorance  there  is  plenty  of  room, 
we  have  seen,  for  an  intermediary  individual 
initiation  which  is  more  an  art  than  a  science. 

To  each  particular  educator,  according  to 
the  circumstances,  belongs  the  delicate  task 
of  knowing  what  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  said 
to  any  child  confided  to  him,  when  it  should 
be  said,  and  how.  Nature  and  grace  offer  an 
infinity  of  resources  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  order,  and  he  is  strictly  bound  to  use 
them  wisely.  We  shall  shortly  try  roughly  to 
trace  the  programme  of  such  an  education, 
where  common  sense  and  experience  are  called 
upon  to  play  the  principal  roles. 

It  is  in  the  use  of  this  method  of  individual 
initiation,  adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  age, 
sex,  temperament,  and  environment,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  look  for  the  tradition  of  the 
Church,  and  not  in  the  employment  of  a 
method  of  crude  enlightenment  or  of  absolute 
ignorance, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  125 

"The  Church  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,"  writes  one  of  the  most  ardent  ad- 
vocates of  the  method  of  silence,  "spoke  to  the 
faithful  a  language  that  would  not  be  tolerated 
to-day.  But  what  does  this  prove?  That  the 
preachers  adapted  themselves  to  the  under- 
standing of  their  hearers.  At  that  time  they 
were  still  in  the  midst  of  paganism;  certain 
gross  and  repugnant  terms  were  in  current  use ; 
they  shocked  no  one;  there  is  nothing  surpris- 
ing in  the  Fathers  and  Doctors  employing  this 
terminology.  But  can  any  one  tell  us  that  the 
bishops  would  to-day  permit  such  language  in 
the  pulpit,  or  in  catechetical  instruction,  or  in 
classes  presided  over  by  a  priest  or  religious? 
.  .  .  How,  then,  can  educators  in  purity  claim 
the  Church  as  favorable  to  their  system  of  tell- 
ing everything?  In  the  seminaries  there  is  for 
priests  a  course  which  gives  the  necessary 
teaching  on  this  subject.  But  the  conduct  of 
the  Church  regarding  this  course,  far  from 
proving  that  she  favors  the  system  of  telling 
everything,  shows  clearly  that  she  holds  it  in 
aversion." 


i26  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

In  my  turn,  I  ask,  What  does  this  prove? 
Evidently  this  proves  against  the  secular  ad- 
vocates of  the  scientific  method  pure  and  sim- 
ple, that  they  greatly  deceive  themselves  in 
putting  all  their  hope  in  science  as  a  safe- 
guard for  the  purity  of  children,  as  if  the 
Church's  twenty  centuries  of  experience  did 
not  demonstrate  to  the  most  obstinate  that  sci- 
ence is  powerless  and  fatal  where  the  will  has 
not  been  armed  morally  against  the  crudity  of 
its  revelations. 

This  proves,  too,  against  the  religious  par- 
tisans of  a  collective  or  individual  education 
in  purity  by  means  of  the  scientific  method, 
that  this  method,  far  from  being  the  neces- 
sary complement  of  a  strong  religious  and 
moral  education,  is  rather  a  dangerous  instru- 
ment in  collective,  and  at  least  useless  in  in- 
dividual, education. 

But  it  proves  absolutely  nothing  against  the 
use  of  a  method  of  initiation  in  which  com- 
mon sense  replaces  science,  and  which,  meas- 
ured and  progressive,  takes  special  account  of 
the  needs  of  each  particular  child,  without  any 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  127 

intention  of  telling  everything,  but  with  the 
sole  care  of  saying  what  is  necessary  and  in 
the  proper  way,  giving  to  the  training  of  the 
will  the  right  of  way  over  education  of  the 
intellect,  so  as  exactly  to  proportion  the  neces- 
sary revelations  to  the  moral  power  of  re- 
sistance in  the  individual. 

For  there  is  no  question  here  of  telling 
everything,  as  the  partisans  of  silence  imagine; 
nor  of  telling  it  from  the  pulpit,  or  in  the 
catechism  class,  or  at  school.  The  method  of 
relative  initiation  that  we  advocate  is  strictly 
individual,  and  its  employment  varies  from 
one  case  to  another  in  the  intimate  family  cir- 
cle and  in  the  confessional. 

Will  any  one  say  that  this  method  does  not 
accord  with  the  traditions  of  the  Church? 
Every  one  must  grant  that  in  the  first  cen- 
turies of  Christianity  the  Fathers  and  Doctors 
were  not  watched  so  closely  in  these  matters. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  preachers  were  not 
blamed  for  calling  things  in  the  pulpit  by  their 
names.  Later  on,  certain  saints,  as  St.  Ber- 
nardine  of  Siena  and  St  Vincent  Ferrer,  did 


128  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

not  beat  about  the  bush  in  denouncing  to  their 
hearers  the  grossness  of  their  lives. 

The  Church  to-day,  some  one  says,  would 
not  tolerate  such  language,  and  this  is  true ;  but 
such  freedom  is  not  in  question.  Besides,  no 
matter  what  any  one  says,  this  at  least  proves 
that  the  Church,  throughout  the  long  course  of 
her  existence,  has  adapted  her  teaching  to  the 
necessities  of  the  moment. 

But  if  the  language  of  educators  has  been 
ennobled,  will  any  one  dare  to  maintain  that 
the  morals  of  to-day  have  been  improved? 
Are  we  not,  on  the  contrary,  witnessing  a 
veritable  recrudescence  of  paganism?  And 
if,  at  the  different  periods  of  demoralization 
among  Christians,  the  Church  has  adapted  her 
language  to  the  needs  of  the  faithful,  will  she 
not  to-day,  in  the  family  or  in  the  confessional, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  enabling  children  of 
themselves  to  react  against  the  licentious 
morals  they  are  every  moment  forced  to  wit- 
ness, allow  educators  to  say  to  each  one  of 
these  children,  alone  and  according  to  their 
personal  needs,  in  a  language  noble  but  pre- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  129 

cise,  what  she  once  allowed  to  be  cried  aloud 
from  the  pulpit,  in  a  crude,  gross  style,  to 
crowds  of  the  faithful? 

For  it  cannot  be  denied  that  from  day  to 
day  children  of  all  classes  of  society  and  of 
every  age  are  now  exposed  to  seeing  or  hear- 
ing things  which  endanger  their  purity.  In 
this  regard  poor  and  rich  alike  are  in  the  same 
boat. 

For  the  poor  there  is  the  school,  whether 
mixed  or  not,  where  the  companionship  of 
bad  children  is  always  to  be  feared;  after 
school,  the  precocious  life  of  domestic  ser- 
vice in  the  town  or  village  or  city;  then  the 
workshop ;  then  the  tavern. 

For  the  rich  there  are  almost  the  same  dan- 
gers at  the  college  or  boarding-school ;  or,  at 
the  university,  in  the  conversation,  the  jour- 
nals, the  reviews;  then,  in  the  world,  the  en- 
tertainments where  young  men  and  women  are 
left  to  themselves  without  the  surveillance  of 
parents;  dances,  galleries,  summer  and  win- 
ter resorts,  in  the  mountains,  at  the  sea-shore; 
theatres,  concerts,  and  shows  of  all  sorts. 


130  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

For  all  there  is  the  street,  with  its  indecent 
posters,  its  salacious  exhibitions,  its  porno- 
graphic post-cards,  its  suggestive  advertise- 
ments, and  its  display  of  so-called  artistic 
nudities. 

I  grant  that  some  children  and  youths,  es- 
pecially if  they  be  well  brought  up  and 
guarded,  may  sometimes  pass  through  this 
poisoned  atmosphere,  preserving  their  inno- 
cence in  virtue  of  their  ignorance.  But  they 
will  always  be  the  exception.  Whereas,  here 
more  than  elsewhere  it  is  not  the  exception, 
but  the  rule  that  counts.  And  who  would 
dare  to  maintain  as  a  general  rule  that  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  years  one  can,  without  se- 
rious and  proximate  danger  of  intoxication, 
breathe  a  fetid  air,  where  the  poison  of  im- 
purity enters  one,  so  to  say,  through  every 
pore? 

Moreover,  the  strictest  partisans  of  the 
method  of  silence  in  theory  are  obliged  in 
practice  to  relax  some  of  their  rigor  and  make 
some  concessions.  They  grant  that,  being 
given  the  deplorable  circumstances  in  which 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  131 

we  live  regarding  social  morals,  it  is  allowed 
to  the  natural  educators  of  the  child,  if  they 
believe  it  is  not  prudent  further  to  prolong 
his  ignorance  on  questions  relating  to  chastity, 
to  give  him  some  knowledge,  but  not  a  defi- 
nite knowledge.  They  wish  this  knowledge 
to  be  "indefinite,"  and  they  pretend  to  make 
this  concession  only  on  such  a  condition. 

Let  us  see  what  we  should  think  of  this  at- 
titude. 

II.    Indefinite  Knowledge  and  Innocence 

Speaking  of  the  dangers  of  the  scientific 
method  in  these  delicate  matters,  one  of  the 
most  ardent  and  most  intelligent  defenders  of 
the  method  of  silence  has  made  this  remark: 
"In  the  first  place,  the  child  wishes  to  know. 
And  in  this  field  his  natural  curiosity  will  be 
sharpened  by  an  instinct  whose  tendency  he 
does  not  understand.  It  is  intended  that  the 
initiation  should  be  slow  and  progressive. 
But  you  are  not  able  to  initiate  as  you  plan. 
It  is  he  who  manages  his  investigation.  Where 


132  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

will  you  stop  your  question,  and  on  what  pre- 
text?" 

If  there  is  question  of  an  exclusively  scien- 
tific education  in  purity,  where  science  re- 
places all  moral  education,  this  remark  is 
profoundly  true.  For,  in  the  name  even  of 
the  science  that  one  imposes  on  him,  he  has 
the  right  to  know  all ;  and  I  do  not  know  what 
pretext  one  can  draw  from  science  itself  to 
place  any  bounds  to  his  natural  curiosity. 

But  in  a  system  of  training  to  purity,  where 
the  education  addresses  itself  more  to  the  will 
of  the  child  than  to  his  intellect,  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  educator  has  a  hundred  motives 
of  the  natural  and  supernatural  order  to  for- 
bid the  child  to  see  further  than  the  scientific 
explanations  given  to  him,  and  that  the  edu- 
cator reserves  to  himself  to  give  when  and 
how  he  pleases.  There  are  innumerable 
things  that  well  brought  up  children  would 
do  if  they  merely  followed  their  instincts,  and 
which  they  give  up  voluntarily  out  of  obedi- 
ence and  in  the  name  of  God.  Will  the 
natural  need  of  knowing  slip  the  bridle  of 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  133 

their  will  in  this  regard,  when  they  know 
clearly  that  God,  the  Church,  their  parents 
and  superiors  wish  them  momentarily  to  hold 
a  tight  rein? 

And  if  this  be  true  of  a  scientific  initiation 
based  on  moral  education,  which  we  have  seen 
is  inapplicable  and  useless,  much  more  ought 
this  to  be  true  about  a  common-sense,  meas- 
ured and  progressive,  strictly  individual  ini- 
tiation, when,  by  reason  of  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious authority  that  they  exercise  over  their 
will,  the  natural  educators  of  the  child  have 
the  power  of  satisfying  and  restraining  his 
natural  curiosity,  according  to  the  needs  of 
the  moment,  of  which  they  remain  the  judges. 

Moreover,  the  adversaries  of  all  initiation 
admit  that,  despite  the  need  of  knowing  which 
is  natural  to  a  child,  one  can  impose  upon  him, 
during  long  years,  an  absolute  ignorance. 
Will  it,  then,  be  more  difficult  to  impose  upon 
him,  appealing  firmly  to  divine  motives,  and 
giving  him  a  multitude  of  natural  and  super- 
natural means,  a  relative  ignorance,  otherwise 


H34  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

called  a  slow,  progressive,  common-sense  ini- 
tiation? 

Let  us  recall,  also,  that  the  children  to  be 
initiated  have  been  prepared  long  since,  by 
an  intensive  and  profoundly  Christian  cul- 
ture of  their  will,  to  react  against  the  sup- 
posed danger  of  a  sane  initiation  adapted  to 
the  temperament  and  to  the  mentality  of  each. 

Besides,  let  us  recall  that  this  strictly  in- 
dividual initiation  should  not  ordinarily  be- 
gin before  the  crisis  of  puberty,  and  that  dur- 
ing this  crisis  it  is  particularly  the  child's 
personal  need  of  knowing  that  will  furnish  to 
the  parents  the  measure  and  tone  of  the  ini- 
tiation in  question. 

Finally,  let  us  note  that  we  live  at  a  time 
of  such  general  moral  deterioration  that  the 
symptoms,  by  their  quality  and  number,  have 
delivered  us  up  to  a  contempt  of  all  modesty, 
and  have  placed  that  of  children  in  special 
danger  at  the  time  precisely  when,  under  the 
influence  of  profound  physiological  transfor- 
mations, their  little  being  is  in  a  ferment  and 
fever  of  knowing. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  135 

This  being  so,  where  is  the  mother,  con- 
scious of  her  responsibility,  of  so  little  intel- 
ligence and  ability  that  she  cannot  perceive 
in  the  looks,  the  attitude,  on  the  lips  of  her 
child,  these  delicate  and  disturbing  questions, 
and  cannot  find  in  her  heart  and  soul  the  re- 
ply to  give  them,  and  the  desired  authority  to 
forbid  to  the  child  to  seek  beyond  her  an- 
swer? 

Where  is  the  mother  who,  having  seen, 
during  a  dozen  or  more  years,  her  son  or 
daughter  habituated  to  obey  her,  to  act  ac- 
cording to  conscience,  to  master  their  growing 
senses,  to  place  the  will  of  God  in  the  first 
rank  as  rule  of  all  their  conduct,  to  pray  and 
to  receive  the  Sacraments  with  this  intention, 
will  not  feel  the  necessary  authority  to  tell 
them,  at  the  critical  moment  of  a  needed 
revelation,  looking  deep  down  into  their  eyes: 
"My  child,  do  not  worry.  This  is  the  point. 
I  am  not  telling  you  everything,  because  you 
are  not  of  an  age  to  understand,  but  what  you 
can  understand  I  do  tell  you.  You  must  not 
inquire  further.    Some  day  you  will  know  the 


136  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

whole  truth ;  but  the  little  that  you  do  know, 
since  it  is  all  true,  ought  to  be  enough.  Look 
upon  the  desire  to  know  more  as  a  temptation. 
Later  we  shall  take  up  this  talk  again.  But 
now  pray  to  God,  obey  your  mother,  keep 
to  yourself  what  I  have  told  you,  and  think 
no  more  about  it." 

Such  language  from  a  mother  whose  good- 
ness has  gained  the  confidence  of  the  child, 
and  whose  authority  has  his  respect,  will  cer- 
tainly be  satisfactory.  But  let  every  one  note 
that  it  will  be  so  because  of  its  very  clearness, 
and  not  because  of  its  confusion.  For  the 
child  tries  less  to  know  everything  than  to 
understand  the  little  that  one  has  told  him, 
and  that  he  requires  one  should  tell  him.  Or- 
dinarily he  does  not  go  beyond  the  questions 
that  he  asks,  but  this  is  on  condition  that  one 
has  not  the  air  of  evading  him,  of  answering 
beside  the  mark,  or  in  an  unintelligible  fash- 
ion. 

If,  then,  by  "confused"  knowledge  certain 
educators,  in  the  present  question,  mean  an 
incomplete    knowledge,    nothing    is    better. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  137 

But  the  term  is  incorrect,  for  an  incomplete 
knowledge  is  not  necessarily  confused.  We 
do  not  know  the  whole  of  anything,  but  what 
we  do  know  is  not  therefore  confused. 

On  the  contrary,  if  by  confused  knowledge 
these  educators  mean  an  ambiguous,  vague, 
uncertain  knowledge,  I  believe  that  the  rem- 
edy that  they  propose  is  more  dangerous  than 
ignorance.  At  least,  as  long  as  a  child  doubts 
nothing,  he  does  not  seek  to  know.  But  as 
soon  as  his  soul  awakes,  if  he  perceives,  from 
the  intended  vagueness  of  your  language,  that 
you  are  not  answering  his  questions,  or  if  he 
only  suspects  that  you  are  deceiving  him  by 
answering  beside  the  mark,  he  will  himself 
seek  elsewhere,  in  secret,  the  answer,  and  he 
will  withdraw  the  confidence  he  had  in  you. 

We  are,  then,  brought  to  this  dilemma: 
whether  indefinitely  to  prolong  the  ignorance 
of  children  after  the  crisis  of  puberty  (but 
we  have  seen  that  this  is  morally  impossible, 
especially  at  present)  or  to  profit  by  this  crisis 
to  give  with  authority  and  clearness  a  com- 


138  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

mon-sense  initiation  proportioned  to  their 
limited  and  progressive  needs  of  knowing. 

I  shall  not,  in  closing,  invoke  my  personal 
experience  of  youths,  although  it  is  entirely 
in  favor  of  this  last  position.  But  I  could 
invoke  the  witness  of  many  Christian  mothers, 
who  have  never  had  to  repent  of  having  so 
acted. 

By  contrast  one  sees  every  day,  on  the  mor- 
row of  their  marriage,  for  example,  "well 
brought  up"  young  women,  whose  innocence 
has  been  jealously  guarded  in  favor  of  igno- 
rance, fall  victims  to  the  first  initiation,  and 
in  an  instant  and  forever  lose  their  innocence. 

How  many  others  are  bound  in  marriage 
knowing  nothing,  and  who,  of  their  own  will, 
had  they  known,  would  never  have  wished  to 
marry,  and  would  have  made  to  God,  in  re- 
ligion or  in  the  world,  an  offering  of  their 
virginity! 

It  seems  to  me  that  these  simple  considera- 
tions are  of  a  nature  to  make  the  reader  re- 
flect, and  that  they  stand  in  no  need  of  com- 
ment.    I  do  not  insist  further. 


CHAPTER  V 

A  TENTATIVE   PROGRAMME   OF   EDUCATING   TO 
PURITY  ACCORDING  TO  THE  COMMON- 
SENSE  METHOD 

NEITHER  crude  illumination  nor  ab- 
solute ignorance — that  is  our  motto ;  we 
believe  that  we  have  justified  it  sufficiently. 

Not  crude  illumination;  that  is,  not  scien- 
tific education,  either  individual  or  collective. 
By  itself,  science  not  only  does  not  beget 
morality,  but  will,  by  revealing  their  object, 
awaken  in  those  abstracting  from  the  control 
of  an  educated  will  the  instincts  of  a  dormant 
sensuality. 

Supported  by  a  strong  moral  and  religious 
education,  science,  under  the  technical  aspect 
that  characterizes  scientific  teaching,  will  re- 
main eminently  dangerous  as  a  method  of  col- 
lective   education    because    of    the    peculiar 

139 


140  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

psychology  characterizing  all  groups  of  young 
people;  besides,  I  do  not  believe  it  is  applica- 
ble by  the  majority  of  parents,  or  useful  to 
the  majority  of  children,  even  if  considered 
as  an  instrument  of  individual  education. 

But  neither  should  we  have  absolute  igno- 
rance. Neither  in  theory  nor  in  practice  is 
the  method  of  silence  a  method  of  education 
successfully  to  tide  over  the  crisis  of  puberty, 
where  the  natural  need  of  knowing  may 
awaken  from  one  moment  to  another. 

Between  the  scientific  method  and  the 
method  of  silence,  however,  there  is  a  place 
for  a  method  of  strictly  individual  initiation, 
which  supposes  as  a  necessary  condition  a 
maximum  of  moral  and  religious  education 
of  the  will,  and  which  is  more  an  art  than  a 
science. 

In  theory  this  method  of  initiation,  in  which 
only  the  needs  of  the  particular  child  govern 
the  conduct  and  usage  of  the  educators,  is 
far  preferable  to  the  method  of  silence.  In 
the  first  place,  the  moral  foundation  which  it 
demands  as  a  preliminary  guarantees  the  sen- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  141 

sibility  of  the  child  against  the  supposed  dan- 
ger of  a  sane  initiation;  besides,  it  allows  the 
child,  by  the  progressive  repetition  of  acts 
of  chastity  performed  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  case,  to  acquire  the  habit  of  chastity  un- 
der the  influence  and  the  guarantee  of  the 
corresponding  infused  virtue,  and  makes  him 
naturally  chaste,  since  habit  is,  beyond  doubt, 
a  second  nature. 

In  practice  it  protects  the  child  against  the 
certain  dangers  of  a  vicious  initiation,  whose 
sources,  in  this  period  of  social  demoraliza- 
tion, have  been  multiplied  at  will. 

It  now  remains  for  us  to  outline  the  pro-      . 
gramme  of  educating  to  purity  which  the 
natural  educators  of  the  child  ought  to  fol- 
low.   This  programme  has  two  aspects,  one 
negative  and  the  other  positive. 

Negatively,  the  educators  ought  to  use  all  *j 
the  forces  they  can  to  lessen,  if  not  to  suppress 
entirely,   the  innumerable  sources  of  moral 
corruption  that  are  the  disgrace  of  our  age. 

Positively,  they  should  adapt  the  initiation    &/ 
to  the  multiple  needs  of  the  children  under 


142  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

their  care,  taking  strict  account  of  their  age, 
sex,  individual  temperament,  and  the  dif- 
ferent surroundings  where  they  have  attained 
to  virility  or  full  moral  maturity. 


/.     Negative  Education   in  Purity  and  the 
Social  Sources  of  Corruption 

I  DO  not  intend  to  study  in  detail  each  of  the 
active  sources  of  demoralization  which  seem 
to  have  sprung  spontaneously  from  the  depths 
of  modern  society,  nor  even  to  enumerate 
them  all.  Itwill  suffice  to  indicate  the  prin- 
N  cipal  ones  in  order  to  throw  into  relief  the 
remedy  which  all  of  good  will,  who  wish  to 
dam  as  soon  as  possible  these  currents  of  im- 
morality, should  use. 

And  first  as  to  pornography. 

The  whole  world  knows  with  what  inso- 
lence and  facility  pornography  is  propagated 
to-day  by  the  street,  pictures,  newspapers, 
novels,  cabarets,  moving  pictures,  theatres.  M 
Berenger,  speaking  before  the  last  annual  re- 
union  of   the   Societe   d'ficonomie   Sociale,1 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  143 

thus  sums  up  the  dangers  of  the  street: 
"There  is  the  kiosk,  where  the  obscenity  of 
the  day  is  exposed;  the  shops,  and  even  the 
big  stores,  where  are  found  books  with  de- 
grading covers  and  suggestive  titles  to  catch 
the  eye.  There  is  the  second-hand  bookseller, 
whose  shop  is  open  to  every  one,  and  who, 
side  by  side  with  old  books  which  are  all  he 
has  a  right  to  sell,  places  modern  produc- 
tions whose  illustrations  or  titles  proclaim 
their  frank  obscenity;  there  is  the  popular 
song  shouted  in  the  street  with  orchestral  ac- 
companiment, and  the  refrain  repeated  in 
chorus  by  the  crowd.  .  .  .  There  is  the  bill- 
board, for  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  there 
is  something  to  be  said,  but  which  from  time 
to  time  offers  open  provocation  to  the  pas- 
sionate glances  of  the  youthful.  There  is  the 
distribution  of  advertisements  or  shameful 
pictures;  there  is  the  spectacle  of  the  circus, 
where  the  passer-by,  without  entering  the 
booth,  gathers  something  of  the  audacious 
clap-trap  attracting  the  crowd.  There  is  the 
poster  of  the  show  that  no  one  has  dared  to 


i44  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

present  elsewhere,  or,  again,  what  is  perhaps 
worse  and  more  dangerous,  saying,  'Children 
prohibited.' 

"And  finally,  beyond  all,  as  the  most  deadly 
teaching  of  the  street,  there  is  prostitution 
to-day  left  mistress  of  the  sidewalk,  almost 
everywhere,  almost  at  all  hours,  enjoying  in 
certain  quarters  and  at  certain  times  the  fullest 
liberty. 

"This  is  the  sight  that  the  street  presents 
to-day.  How  do  you  expect  children  (I 
mean  that  great  number  who  live  on  the 
street,  and  only  there,  from  morning  till 
night)  to  pass  unharmed  through  so  many  ele- 
ments soliciting  their  curiosity,  at  an  age 
when  they  do  not  yet  know,  and  when  they 
(especially  those  who  are  forbidden)  wish 
to  know  all?" 

Doubtless,  as  M.  Berenger  himself  remarks, 
thanks  to  the  watchfulness  of  those  who  ac- 
company them,  many  children  of  the  middle 
and  upper  classes  escape,  at  least  in  part,  the 
contamination  of  the  streets.  But  the  children 
of  the  people,  those  whose  working  parents 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  145 

cannot  keep  watch,  and  who  pass  their  days 
in  the  street,  or  merely  a  part  of  their  day  in 
going  to  or  from  school — how  can  they  es- 
cape? They  roam  around,  seeking  everything 
that  attracts  their  attention  or  strikes  their 
fancy;  and  then  from  the  kiosk,  where  is  ex- 
posed the  foul  picture  of  an  illustrated  paper, 
they  pass  on  to  the  book-shop,  to  the  second- 
hand dealer,  to  the  window  of  the  artificial 
limb-maker,  the  hair-dresser,  the  woman's 
tailor;  then  to  the  circus  and  all  that  follows. 

This  is  the  evil.     But  what  is  the  remedy? 

The  best  thing  would  evidently  be  to  col- 
lect these  children  of  the  people,  during  their 
hours  of  complete  liberty,  in  the  day-nurser- 
ies, circles,  and  homes,  and  to  undertake  their 
moral  education.  We  shall  return  to  this 
point.  But,  in  the  meantime,  there  is  an- 
other remedy  that  presents  itself,  and  that  is 
vto  improve  the  street."  What  the  police  can 
do  to  safeguard  material  property  in  the 
streets  of  Paris  by  prohibiting  under  fine  the 
throwing  of  hand-bills,   advertisements,   and 


<* 


146  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

other  similar  papers,  will  not  the  State  at- 
tempt in  order  to  protect  moral  property? 

The  State  long  ago  attempted  this  by  laws 
concerning  these  matters:  the  law  of  1881  on 
the  liberty  of  the  press;  the  law  of  1881 
against  publications  exposed  or  distributed  on 
public  conveyances  and  at  the  doors  of  the- 
atres ;  the  law  of  the  7th  of  June,  1908,  wherein 
everything  we  have  just  described  is  expressly 
forbidden  and  penalized. 

For  the  most  part  the  laws  would  be  suffi- 
cient if  they  were  enforced — but  they  are  not 
enforced.  M.  Berenger,  in  the  conference 
that  I  have  just  indicated,  has  furnished  upon 
this  point  of  the  non-enforcement  of  the  laws 
in  Paris  and  in  the  provinces  the  most  authori- 
tative and  distressing  evidence.  He  has  been 
able  to  prove  "that  in  the  measure  that  the 
signs  of  depravity  and  the  number  of  offences 
increase,  the  repression  diminishes." 

This  inertia  of  the  authorities  is  found  in 
every  part  of  the  administration.  If  you  wit- 
ness some  disgraceful  thing  in  the  street  and 
call  a  policeman,  he  excuses  himself  under  the 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  147 

pretext  "that  he  has  no  orders."  Once  some 
circular  letters  recommended  vigilance  to  the 
magistrates;  but  for  ten  years  no  further  in- 
struction has  been  sent  out.  There  is  the  same 
inaction  at  the  prefecture  of  police.  No  meas- 
ure has  been  taken  regarding  this  abuse  in 
theatres.  It  is  known  that  scandals  abound, 
and  yet  nothing  is  done. 

In  view  of  this  cowardice  on  the  part  of 
the  public  authorities,  what  can  be  done?  M. 
Berenger  has  suggested  certain  remedies.  The 
first  is  to  exact  a  serious  application  of  our 
laws.  All  should  concentrate  their  efforts 
on  this  point. 

Afterwards  he  would  work  to  obtain  for 
the  societies  entrusted  with  the  high  mission 
of  securing  a  strict  enforcement  of  the  law 
the  right  to  carry  cases  directly  to  the 
tribunals. 

But,  while  seeing  that  the  laws  are  better 
applied  and  that  the  right  of  direct  interven- 
tion be  given  certain  societies,  there  are  other 
ways  of  reacting  upon  the  public  and  upon 
individuals. 


*) 


6A 


148  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Collective  action  is  the  great  weapon  of  our 
time ;  let  us  use  it.  Many  societies  already  ex- 
ist. It  only  remains  to  form  some  new  ones 
and  to  have  them  all  meet,  speak,  act,  and  so 
create  a  public  opinion  that  can  no  longer  be 
resisted  by  the  authorities.  An  international 
convention  has  already  undertaken  the  study 
of  defence  against  the  rising  tide  of  debauch- 
ery: so  far  six  nations  have  joined  it.  In  the 
latest  diocesan  congress  of  Paris  M.  de  Lau- 
nay  declared  that  the  Ligue  contre  la  Licence 
des  Rues  et  contre  la  Pornographie  (10  rue 
Pasquier)  helps  all  who  are  willing  to  work 
against  this  evil,  and  he  invited  the  parochial 
committees  to  enter  the  field. 

In  addition  he  urges  that  every  one  join 
P^  the  fight.  The  means  of  enforcing  decency 
are  not  wanting.  An  individual  remonstrance 
to  the  seller  of  the  obscenity,  a  threat  of  buy- 
ing nothing  more  from  him,  a  personal  com- 
plaint to  the  magistrate,  is  often  given  greater 
attention  than  the  official  denunciation  of  a 
group.     One  can  do  much  by  these  simple 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  149 

means  to  purify  the  street;  let  each  one  use 
them  according  to  his  power. 

As  to  demoralizing  literature,  every  one 
knows  the  circulation  it  has  in  our  times  and 
the  injurious  influence  that  it  exercises  on 
youth.  If  juvenile  crime  has  increased  in 
alarming  proportions,  it  is  not  rash  to  assert 
that  this  literature  is  largely  responsible. 
Among  the  effects  of  two  children  who  mur- 
dered a  whole  family  were  found  immoral 
writings  and  obscene  songs.  The  motive  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  robberies  committed 
by  children  is  the  desire,  provoked  and  super- 
excited  by  unhealthy  reading,  to  initiate  them- 
selves into  the  worst  pleasures  of  men. 

Some  deadly  theories,  such  as  that  of  "art 
for  art's  sake,"  the  inalienable  rights  of  love, 
irresponsibility  in  crimes,  noisily  exploited  be- 
fore the  public  and  circulated  by  all  sorts 
of  literary  and  oratorical  means,  have  falsi- 
fied the  judgment  of  this  generation. 

"From  this  doctrine  of  success,"  writes  M. 
Charles  Brun,  "that  one  can  correctly  call  'the 
immorality  of  literature,'  we  pass  directly  to 


150  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

the  development  of  individualism,  which  is 
not  simply  a  literary  evil.  .  .  .  Contemporary 
literature,  because  it  justifies  passion,  because 
it  glorifies  success,  tends  to  I  know  not  what 
wild  apotheosis  of  the  individual.  It  pro- 
claims the  right  of  each  one  to  remake  and  to 
live  his  own  life,  the  right  to  happiness.  And 
this  mirage  has  deceived  our  youth,  greedy  for 
pleasure,  and  who  do  not  know  by  what  con- 
cessions and  what  wise  restraint  is  attained 
human  beatitude. 

"It  has  struck  the  hardest  blows  at  the  fam- 
ily: it  has  advertised  divorce,  excused  seduc- 
tion, attended  on  free  love,  lighted  incense  in 
honor  of  the  illegitimate  child.  It  has  placed 
the  father  and  mother  in  humiliating  positions 
in  the  presence  of  their  children."  2 

Assuredly  a  reaction  against  this  demoraliz- 
ing literature  has  already  set  in  among  honor- 
able authors,  Christian  and  non-Christian. 
MM.  Bourget,  Barres,  Bazin,  Bordeaux,  to 
mention  only  the  chief,  have  set  themselves 
resolutely  to  the  task  of  reform,  and  exercise 
over  young  people  an  influence  that  daily  in- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  151 

creases.  But  the  public  ought  to  help  them  in 
their  work  of  restoring  literature  and  morals. 

Why  can  we  not  have  in  France  what  has 
been  successfully  tried  in  Germany  against 
immoral  literature?  In  that  country  the  law, 
by  certain  dispositions  of  the  penal  code  (Art. 
184  ff.)  and  of  the  commercial  law  (Gewer- 
beordnung,  Art.  42a  and  56),  is  enforced;  the 
government,  the  administration,  the  munici- 
palities, and  finally  private  initiative,  act  in- 
dependently, and  very  often  unite  to  attack 
and  reduce  the  evil. 

Here,  for  example,  is  the  well  thought  out 
doctrinal  programme  by  which  our  neighbors 
on  the  east  have  applied  themselves  to  metho- 
dize their  efforts.  It  comprises  two  parts: 
one  positive,  of  which  we  shall  speak  again, 
and  one  negative.  The  following  are  recom- 
mended as  negative  means  of  bridling  de- 
moralizing literature: 

"(a)  The  measures  that  the  governmental, 
municipal,  educational,  and  police  authorities 
can  take  (to  impose  legal  proscriptions  and 
apply  more  strictly  existing  proscriptions). 


152  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

"(b)  Prohibition  of  the  sale  of  certain  pub- 
lications on  the  highways. 

"(c)  Pressure  exercised  upon  the  publish- 
ers and  the  small  dealers,  with  co-operation  of 
the  Commissioners  of  Publication. 

"(d)  Surveillance  of  show-windows  and 
shops. 

"(e)  Listing  the  firms  selling  immoral  lit- 
erature. 

"(/)  Putting  parents  and  children  on  their 
guard,  through  the  schools  and  associations, 
against  demoralizing  literature." 

We  may  add  the  boycotting  of  books  and  of 
theatres  where  such  literature  is  shamelessly 
exposed.  An  attempt  of  this  kind  has  been 
recently  made  in  an  American  city  and  has 
been  perfectly  successful.  Some  mothers 
threatened  to  avoid  a  theatre  for  a  whole  sea- 
son if  a  certain  doubtful  piece  were  not  with- 
drawn; the  director  was  compelled  to  defer 
to  the  wishes  and  threats  of  the  public. 

But  even  in  the  best  families  a  reaction  is 
in  order,  for  the  sake  of  the  children,  against 
the  introduction  and  display  of  works  univer- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  153 

sally  unhealthy.  Thanks  to  an  unpardonable 
unconsciousness,  which  can  only  be  partly  ex- 
plained by  the  influence  of  the  surrounding 
atmosphere,  even  some  Catholic  educators  are 
deserving  of  grave  reproach.  I  know  many 
whose  libraries,  always  open  and  ready  to 
the  hand  of  children,  contain  in  novels  or  il- 
lustrated books  the  worst  productions  of  mod- 
ern times.  Others,  in  greater  numbers,  expose 
upon  their  drawing-room  tables,  alongside  of 
collections  of  gross  post-cards,  the  Illustration 
Thedtrale,  which  contains  the  "popular 
pieces" — that  is,  those  in  which,  on  each  page, 
the  morality  of  the  home  is  held  up  to  the 
greatest  possible  ridicule. 

Still  others — especially  mothers — who  wish 
the  innocence  of  their  daughters  to  be  above 
suspicion,  and  who  would  regard  it  as  a  mis- 
take personally  to  undertake  in  their  regard 
a  necessary  initiation  demanded  by  the  cir- 
cumstances, consider  it  their  duty  to  take  them 
to  shows  that  would  make  a  sailor  blush,  with- 
out appearing  to  suspect  that  they  can  have 
any  consequences.    They  foolishly  count  upon 


154  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

the  children's  supposed  ignorance  to  safeguard 
their  hypothetical  innocence. 

Such  conduct  betokens  an  inconsistency  or 
a  cowardice  beyond  comment.  I  do  not 
charge  you  parents,  positively,  with  the  edu- 
cation of  your  children,  if  you  have  not  the 
courage;  but  at  least  be  brave  enough  not 
to  endanger  their  virtue  by  the  introduction 
into  your  homes  of  immoral  books  and  inde- 
cent pictures,  which,  in  spite  of  your  vigilance, 
may  fall  under  their  eyes.  Always  lock  your 
libraries  and  forbid  your  children  to  enter 
your  salons;  do  not  take  them  to  suggestive 
theatres.  In  addition,  watch  your  conversa- 
tion before  them,  and  do  not  give  them  a  taste 
for  certain  toilettes  which  make  them  appear 
as  if  they  were  undressed. 

There  remains  something  to  be  said  about 
contamination  while  at  work.  Whatever  the 
age — twelve  or  thirteen  as  in  France,  or  four- 
teen as  in  Belgium — of  admitting  young  work- 
ers and  apprentices,  one  cannot  deny  that  it 
is  at  a  critical  period,  when  the  passions  are 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  155 

stirring  and  experience  fails.  Would  that  all 
were  even  that  old! 

"But  in  the  factory,"  as  M.  Joseph  Legrand 
observes  very  justly,  "they  will  find  persons 
of  fourteen,  fifteen,  eighteen  years,  and  they 
will  work  side  by  side  with  them.  If  it  is  a 
school  or  institution  in  which  the  divisions 
are  mixed,  the  barriers  between  the  courses 
of  the  minims,  the  younger,  and  the  oldest 
have  been  broken  down!  Imagine  what  in 
such  circumstances  would  be  the  state  of  soul 
of  the  foreman  of  division  or  the  prefect  of 
studies ! 

"And  especially  in  the  factory  is  the  situa- 
tion complicated  and  aggravated  by  the  fact 
that  the  foremen  have  not  the  zeal  or  the  ex- 
perience of  the  prefects  that  we  knew  at 
school;  it  is  further  complicated  and  aggra- 
vated by  the  fact  that  the  boys  and  girls,  if 
they  are  not  in  the  same  room,  have  a  thou- 
sand opportunities  to  meet  on  the  stairs,  at 
the  entrance,  or  at  the  exit  of  the  works."  3 

There  is  every  evidence  to  prove  that  here 
there  is  danger  of  moral  contamination.    One 


156  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

cannot  even  dream  of  suppressing  it,  but  only 
of  lessening  its  effects.  And  for  this  there 
exist  two  classes  of  means:  positive  (of  which 
we  shall  speak  later),  consisting  of  moral 
education  at  home,  church,  or  school,  before 
entrance  into  the  factory;  and  negative,  which 
we  shall  discuss  now. 

In  his  report  upon  the  employers'  work  in 
preserving  youthful  morality,  presented  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Societe  d'Economie 
Sociale,  May  29,  191 1,  M.  Legrand  has  enu- 
merated the  chief  means.4 

After  having  shown  that  at  the  beginning 
of  the  development  of  big  business  the  em- 
ployers— even  Christian  ones — did  not  suffi- 
ciently consider  this  principal  problem,  he  re- 
calls the  splendid  social  reform  movement  that 
has  taken  place  since  1870.  This  is  the  period 
when  M.  le  Comte  de  Mun  and  M.  le  Marquis 
de  la  Tour  du  Pin  founded  the  Catholic  work- 
ingmen's  circles;  when  congresses  were  held 
that  emphasized  the  moral  and  social  duties 
of  employers  towards  their  work-people; 
when  M.  Harmel  in  his  famous  factory  of 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  157 

Val-du-Bois,  M.  Feron-Vrau  at  Lille,  M.  Du- 
tilleul  at  Armentieres,  M.  Bayart  at  Roubaix, 
M.  Dupres-Lepers  atTourcoing,  with  a  crowd 
of  prominent  and  pious  priests,  busied  them- 
selves with  putting  in  practice  the  resolutions 
of  the  congresses. 

Such  a  conscientious  employer  is  first  occu- 
pied with  separating  the  sexes;  then  he  looks 
more  to  the  recruiting  of  the  force;  fore- 
women are  added,  who,  particularly  well 
chosen,  exercise  a  beneficial  influence  upon 
their  subordinates.  Then  he  comes  gradually 
to  group  certain  women  in  pious  confraterni- 
ties; to  gather  some  men  into  Christian  cir- 
cles; to  have  retreats  given  to  them,  from 
which  they  come  out  determined  to  work  for 
the  conversion  of  their  comrades. 

Such  is  a  rough  outline  as  regards  the 
adults.  But  it  is  also  an  indirect  way  of  at- 
tending to  the  children  by  purifying  the 
moral  atmosphere  where  they  are  obliged  to 
work.  The  law  of  1892  came  to  the  help  of 
well-intentioned  individuals  by  abolishing  the 
hateful  abuse  of  night  work  for  women  and 


158  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

children;  by  forbidding  labor  dangerous  to 
morality;  by  asking  employers  to  watch  over 
the  maintenance  of  good  morals  and  public 
decency;  by  obliging  them  to  keep  a  register 
always  at  hand  which  an  inspector  can  consult 
without  notice. 

The  decree  of  November  20,  1904,  was  also 
the  occasion  of  a  very  happy  reform  by  for- 
bidding workingmen  to  eat  their  lunches  in 
the  rooms  given  over  to  labor,  and  by  sug- 
gesting to  certain  zealous  employers  the  idea 
of  special  lunch-rooms  where  the  young  men 
and  women,  each  on  their  own  side,  may 
gather  at  noon  under  the  direction  of  some 
woman  equal  to  this  delicate  task. 

Meanwhile,  no  matter  how  numerous  and 
efficacious  may  be  these  negative  means  of 
preserving  morality  on  the  street,  in  the  fam- 
ily, or  in  the  workshop,  it  is  clear  that  by  them- 
selves they  will  be  insufficient.  All  the  laws 
and  regulations  in  the  world  will  never  ex- 
haust all  the  sources  of  social  corruption. 
Thus  positive  education  in  purity,  whether 
individual  or  collective,  appears  to  be  the 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  159 

best  pledge  of  the  preservation  of  morality, 
especially  if  it  is  accompanied,  at  the  mo- 
ment determined  upon,  by  all  the  legal  and 
social  additions  of  which  we  shall  speak. 


77.     Positive  Education  in  Purity:  Individ-  _^ 
ual  Method 

This  programme  comprises  two  periods,  one 
concerning  the  education  of  childhood,  and 
the  other,  that  of  adolescence. 

The  period  devoted  to  childhood  is  itself 
divided  into  two  very  distinct  phases:  the 
first  extends  from  the  cradle  to  the  crisis  of 
puberty;  the  second  takes  in  the  whole  of 
this  crisis  and  the  critical  passage  from  child- 
hood to  youth,  from  negative  to  positive  in- 
nocence. 

(1)    Childhood. — We  have  established  that  A/ 
during  the  first  phase  of  childhood,  with  rare 
exceptions,  the  education  in  purity  ought  to 
be  indirect,  and  that  the  object  is  not  to  en-    ^ 
lighten  the  child's  mind  upon  this  particular 
point,  but  to  form  his  will.    There  will  then 


160  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

be  no  scientific  initiation  pure  and  simple. 
Until  about  ten  or  twelve,  children  do  not 
generally  show  any  need  of  knowing  things 
concerning  the  sex  problem,  and  to  initiate 
them  scientifically  into  such  things,  whether 
collectively  or  individually,  without  a  prep- 
aration of  their  will,  would  be  deliberately 
to  expose  them  to  the  very  dangers  against 
which  one  pretends  to  guard  them. 

There  should  be  no  initiation  of  any  sort 
upon  the  precise  point  of  chastity,  even  on 
the  supposition  of  a  previous  moral  education. 
Because,  for  one  thing,  no  such  question  ordi- 
narily presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  children 
before  the  crisis  of  puberty;  and  besides, 
their  will  has  not  had  the  time  to  strengthen 
itself  sufficiently  to  withstand  the  dangers  that 
may  come  from  any  initiation,  even  though 
mild  and  healthy.  Do  we  not  know  by  faith, 
indeed,  that  all  children,  without  exception, 
are  born  in  an  abnormal  condition;  that  the 
consequences  of  original  sin  weigh  upon  each 
of  them;  that,  in  face  of  the  inherited  fire  of 
concupiscence,  their  will,  detached  from  God, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  161 

its  living  principle,  is  unstable  and  conse- 
quently incapable  of  mastering  the  instincts 
of  sensuality  that  a  precocious  initiation 
would  certainly  arouse? 

Undoubtedly  the  grace  received  in  Baptism 
establishes  in  its  way  the  moral  equilibrium 
destroyed  by  the  Fall.  But  if  grace  perfects 
nature,  it  does  not  make  up  for  its  activity. 
The  infused  and  supernatural  virtue  of  chas- 
tity, with  all  the  others  that  the  child  receives 
in  Baptism,  in  order  to  give  its  share  of  help, 
needs  to  be  used  intelligently  by  the  super- 
naturalized  will;  to  be  expressed  by  acts  at 
the  same  time  natural  and  supernatural,  which 
develop  in  the  sensitive  faculties  an  acquired 
virtue  of  chastity,  destined  to  serve  as  a  ma- 
terial foundation  for  the  infused  virtue  it- 
self which  supernaturalizes  it  and  in  its  turn 
uses  it. 

In  seeing  that  the  child  can  himself  effi- 
ciently employ  his  infused  virtue  of  chastity, 
the  following  course  is  imposed  upon  those 
charged  with  his  education: 

They  should  urge  the  child  to  receive  the      ** 


i62  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Sacraments  and  to  practise  piety;  for  it  is  of 
faith  that  the  Sacraments  received  in  the  de- 
sired conditions — that  is,  as  long  as  no  ob- 
stacle is  placed  to  them — increase  sanctifying 
grace  in  us,  and  through  it  all  the  virtues  of 
of  which  it  is  the  source.  At  the  same  time 
our  merits  obtain  for  us  from  God  a  direct 
increase  of  grace  and  virtue.  So  that,  when 
the  time  comes  for  the  child  knowingly  to 
exercise  the  virtue  of  chastity,  he  will  find  it 
strong  and  able  to  conquer  the  obstacles  that 
it  may  encounter  in  his  little  nature,  incom- 
pletely educated  and  curbed.  But  this  prac- 
tice of  piety  and  use  of  the  Sacraments  ought 
to  be  organized  in  an  intelligent  way  by  par- 
ents. I  mean  that  they  should  not  be  culti- 
vated for  themselves,  but  that  they  should  be 
made  to  serve  an  integral  religious  education 
of  the  child's  will  and  all  his  faculties. 

In  that  consists  the  great  art  of  education. 
One  sees,  indeed,  some  parents  who  early  train 
their  children  to  the  practice  of  piety,  to  the 
frequentation  of  the  Sacraments,  but  who 
neglect  to  knit  this  up  with  their  daily  life. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  163 

Thus  they  destroy  with  one  hand  what  they 
build  with  the  other.  This  is  absolutely  il- 
logical. 

Since  it  is  a  matter  of  faith  that  all  the  vir- 
tues are  connected  together  in  charity,  and 
that,  besides,  the  increase  of  the  supernatural 
virtues  is  partly  conditioned  by  the  exercise 
of  the  corresponding  natural  virtues  acquired 
under  the  impulsion  of  charity  and  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  supernatural  virtues:  let 
us  not,  then,  separate  in  the  education  of  our 
children  what  God  has  joined  together.  Let 
them  pray,  confess,  and  communicate,  but  so 
that  their  prayers,  confessions,  and  commun- 
ions help  them  to  become  more  and  more 
docile,  respectful,  industrious,  conscientious, 
modest,  mortified,  self-controlled,  energetic, 
unselfish,  self-denying,  and  very  far  from  the 
example  of  pious  children  who  are  disobe- 
dient, disrespectful,  presumptuous,  lazy,  pleas- 
ure-seeking, grumbling,  effeminate,  and  vain. 

There  is  a  complete  physical,  moral,  and 
intellectual  gymnastic  to  give  them  methodi- 
cally, by  appealing  to  all  the  resources  of 


1 64  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

nature  and  grace,  such  as  the  practice  of  piety 
and  the  use  of  the  Sacraments;  elevated  mo- 
tives of  action,  as  the  love  of  God,  the  imita- 
tion of  our  Saviour  and  the  saints ;  the  author- 
ity of  the  Church,  of  parents,  of  teachers;  the 
love  of  the  Ideal  residing  in  the  humblest  cir- 
cumstances; the  devotion  to  duty  under  all 
forms;  respect  for  conscience;  the  instinctive 
horror  of  sin;  the  fear  of  judgment,  death, 
hell;  the  attraction  of  heaven;  the  force  of 
good  example;  the  sentiment  of  responsibility. 

Negative  innocence,  in  which  one  would 
keep  them  so  long  as  there  is  no  good  reason 
to  remove  their  ignorance,  would  not  allow 
this  method  of  integral  religious  education, 
followed  continually  until  the  crisis  of  pu- 
berty and  beyond.  For  during  this  time  their 
will  should  be  formed,  their  moral  power  of 
resisting  increased. 

Habituated,  by  repeated  acts  of  self-control, 
to  react  against  the  excesses  of  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  senses,  they  will  be  completely 
armed  to  resist,  when  the  time  comes,  the 
dangers  that  may  arise  from  necessary  revela- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  165 

tions.  All  the  natural  and  supernatural  mo- 
tives and  means  of  action  that  they  will  have 
used  from  childhood  to  conquer  the  defects 
and  acquire  the  virtues  proper  to  their  age, 
they  will  spontaneously  concentrate  upon  this 
particular  point  of  positive  education  in  pur- 
ity. The  supernatural  virtue  of  chastity  that 
God  will  have  increased  in  them  in  propor- 
tion to  their  merits,  they  can  then  use  naturally 
and  intelligently,  without  this  knowledge 
(which  has  become  necessary,  but  should  be 
imparted  with  wisdom  and  according  to  the 
needs  of  their  weak  personal  exigencies)  im- 
peding right  action. 

In  these  conditions  of  elevated  morality  and 
of  previous  education  of  the  will  of  children, 
the  question  of  positive  training  in  purity, 
employing  a  sane  and  progressive  and  strictly 
individual  method,  does  not  present  any  se- 
rious difficulty. 

The  problem  is  different,  however,  if  it 
concerns  children  badly  brought  up,  open  to 
the  caprices  of  their  imagination,  never  hav- 
ing struggled  to  conquer  themselves  nor  to 


166  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

utilize,  in  such  self-conquest,  all  the  motives 
and  means  of  action  furnished  by  nature  and 
by  grace. 

Now,  at  bottom,  it  is  because  it  is  too  often 
thus — it  is  because  parents  do  not  fulfil  their 
whole  duty  as  Catholic  educators — that  so 
many  eminent  moralists  and  psychologists 
dread  the  dangers  of  any  initiation  what- 
ever, scientific  or  otherwise,  and  have  such 
a  decided  preference  for  the  method  of  si- 
lence. 

From  their  point  of  view — that  is,  con- 
sidering the  problem  of  educating  in  purity 
relatively  to  the  children  badly  brought  up 
or  not  brought  up  at  all — they  are  correct. 
Their  mistake  is  in  generalizing,  and  prefer- 
ring in  theory  and  in  practice,  for  all  chil- 
dren, the  method  of  silence  to  every  other. 
Unfortunately,  this  is  not  a  remedy,  especially 
in  the  actual  circumstances  where  it  does  not 
depend  upon  parents  and  teachers  indefinitely 
to  prolong  this  ignorance  by  destroying  all  the 
evil  individual  or  social  sources  of  corruption. 

Let  us  unite  both  parties  by  giving  to  Chris- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  167 

tian  educators  the  method  of  silence  during 
the  first  phase  of  childhood,  at  least  until  the 
crisis  of  puberty,  and  show  to  all  educators 
the  dangers  of  scientific  initiation. 

Let  us  further  agree  to  oblige  parents  to 
give  to  their  children  during  this  period  an 
integral  religious  education.  But  let  us  loy- 
ally acknowledge  that  for  those  children  for 
whom  has  come  the  hour  of  necessary  revela- 
tions, it  is  better  for  us  generally  to  submit 
to  the  necessity  of  healthily  initiating  them 
instead  of  placing  them  in  the  necessity  of  a 
vicious  initiation  by  blinding  ourselves  to  cir- 
cumstances or  by  shoving  off  on  God  and 
grace  what  God  and  nature  have  placed 
partly  in  our  hands. 

As  to  badly  reared  children,  that  is  an- 
other and  a  thorny  question.  We  shall  obtain 
nothing  from  the  parents,  and  it  is  undoubt- 
edly better  to  ask  nothing.  The  heavy  task, 
then,  falls  upon  us  priests,  confessors,  teach- 
ers, to  remake  on  better  lines  a  badly  begun 
education,  and  to  instruct  them  individually, 


168  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

according  to  the  measure  of  their  needs  and 
our  resources. 

Those  who  individually  escape  us  we  can 
reach  in  our  catechetical  classes,  our  schools 
and  day-nurseries,  instructing  them  collec- 
tively and  attempting  to  perfect,  according  to 
our  means,  their  moral  education:  negatively, 
by  subtracting  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
dangers  of  the  home,  the  workshop,  and  the 
street;  positively,  by  working  for  the  forma- 
tion of  their  intellect  and  their  heart,  and  by 
encouraging  in  them  the  habits  of  piety  and 
of  frequenting  the  Sacraments. 

(2)  From  Childhood  to  Adolescence. — 
Suppose,  then,  that  we  are  considering  well 
brought  up  children,  accustomed  from  their 
earliest  years  to  conquer  themselves  and  spon- 
taneously to  have  recourse  to  God,  to  their 
parents,  or  their  confessor  each  time  a  new 
difficulty  arises. 

The  crisis  of  puberty  comes.  For  all  sorts 
of  physiological,  psychological  and  moral 
reasons,  which  vary  from  one  child  to  an- 
other, and  which  would  take  too  long  to  enu- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  169 

merate  here,  there  happens  in  their  little  lives 
a  profound  change  whose  secret  escapes  them, 
but  which  forces  itself  on  their  attention  by 
its  effects.  If  these  children  really  have  ab- 
solute confidence  in  their  mother,  for  ex- 
ample; if  each  time  an  embarrassing  question 
has  presented  itself  they  have  instinctively 
turned  towards  her  to  obtain  its  solution;  so 
now,  too,  they  will  go  to  her.  It  is  impossible 
to  say  beforehand  under  what  form  they  will 
present  their  difficulties  and  express  their 
doubts,  suspicions,  sufferings  to  her.  That 
will  depend  upon  the  mentality  and  tempera- 
ment of  each  one. 

But  their  mother,  who  has  their  confidence 
and  who  knows  them  intimately  from  having 
followed  them  for  ten  years  or  more,  will 
know  beforehand  of  their  need.  Something 
or  other  will  make  her  divine  the  state  of  soul 
in  which  they  are  struggling.  She  will  help 
them,  with  an  art  peculiar  to  mothers,  to 
formulate  their  questions,  because  she  knows 
their  vocabulary,  their  cast  of  mind,  and  their 
way  of  understanding  or  not  understanding  a 


170  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

hint.  Here,  where  science  would  be  impo- 
tent, her  common  sense,  sustained  and  guided 
by  her  affection  and  the  very  vivid  sense  of 
her  responsibility,  will  amply  suffice. 

Recently  I  saw  a  mother  who  has  half  a 
dozen  children,  the  oldest  seventeen  years  old 
and  the  youngest  about  ten.  As  we  talked 
about  this  question  of  training  to  purity,  she 
told  me  that  she  had  instructed  all,  even  the 
youngest,  as  to  the  way  in  which  children 
come  into  the  world.  The  reasons  that  she 
gave  me  for  this  initiative  were  perfectly  con- 
vincing. I  then  asked  what  impression  these 
revelations  had  made  upon  the  spirit  of  her 
daughters. 

"An  excellent  impression,"  she  replied. 
"The  youngest,  in  particular,  was  so  enrap- 
tured that  she  cried  out:  'When  I  am  grown 
I  shall  have  many  children,  because  now  I 
know  that  they  will  be  good  to  me!'"  This 
was  naive,  but  how  touching! 

"Were  your  explanations  enough,"  I  in- 
quired further,  "or  did  they  not  seek  to  know 
more?" 


■fj^vJLif 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  171 

"No,"  she  replied,  "because  I  have  accus- 
tomed my  children  never  to  seek  elsewhere, 
nor  for  more  than  I  tell  them.  They  are  con- 
vinced that  I  have  told  them  the  truth,  that 
the  rest  does  not  concern  them,  and  that  it 
would  be  wrong  to  pass  beyond  my  prohibi- 
tion. Now,  they  have  such  a  horror  of  what 
is  wrong  that,  for  example,  they  cannot  under- 
stand how  any  one  can  laugh  at  an  evil  action 
cleverly  performed,  or  at  a  funny  lie,  a  bold 
robbery,  a  crime  astutely  committed." 

The  partisans  of  silence  will  undoubtedly 
object  that  this  is  an  exceptional  case.  Cer- 
tainly; but  it  is  necessary  to  call  attention  to 
what  makes  it  exceptional.  Now  the  exception 
does  not  concern  the  initiation  itself,  but  the 
education  of  these  children.  And  the  excep-  c*^a. 
tion,  from  this  point  of  view,  can  easily  be- 
come the  rule.  It  is  because  these  children 
were  exceptionally  well  reared  that  they  could 
be  so  easily  initiated.  If  all  Christian  moth- 
ers would  take  the  trouble  to  bring  up  their 
children  as  this  one  brought  up  hers,  the  posi- 


172  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

tive  education  in  purity  would  not  present 
so  many  difficulties. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  some  children  pass- 
ing through  the  crisis  of  puberty  preserve 
their  innocence  in  virtue  of  their  ignorance, 
this  also  is  an  exception,  but  this  exception 
cannot  become  the  rule.  Observe  the  differ- 
ence, for  it  is  essential. 

But,  some  one  may  ask,  what  if  some  chil- 
dren, more  curious  by  disposition  and  more 
anxious  to  know,  press  their  mother  with 
questions  more  difficult  than  those  concern- 
ing maternity;  if  from  the  effect  they  wish 
immediately  to  ascend  to  the  cause,  what  at- 
titude should  the  mother  take?  This  will 
depend  upon  the  children  and  the  peculiar 
needs  of  each  one. 

A  mother  whose  son,  about  sixteen  years 
of  age,  had  to  leave  home  for  the  university, 
one  day  took  him  aside.  "My  child,"  she 
said  in  substance,  "you  are  soon  to  leave  us 
for  surroundings  that  are  not  at  all  like  home. 
Certainly,  in  this  environment,  if  you  are  not 
prepared,  you  will  learn  things  that  I  do  not 


Jt 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  173 

want  you  to  learn  from  any  one  but  me."  And 
she  then  placed  before  him,  with  admirable 
simplicity,  the  difficult  problem  of  the  sexes. 
For  reply,  the  young  man,  more  moved  by 
this  confidence  of  his  mother  than  by  what 
he  had  heard,  put  his  arms  around  her  neck 
and  embraced  her.  Since  then  he  has  given 
her  an  affection  and  recognition  of  which  his 
father  might  well  be  jealous;  for  it  is  to  his 
mother,  and  to  the  revelations  she  made,  that 
he  owes  his  safety. 

Another  exception,  some  one  will  object. 
Yes,  but  one  which,  if  mothers  or  confessors 
know  how  to  get  the  confidence  of  youths,  can 
become  the  rule.  The  lesson  which  stands  out 
from  this  example,  taken  from  a  thousand,  is 
very  instructive.  Until  his  seventeenth  year 
this  young  man  was  content  to  know  what  his 
mother  had  been  pleased  to  tell  him  of  the 
problem  of  maternity.  On  the  advice  or  com- 
mand of  his  mother,  he  had  not  sought  fur- 
ther. Admitting  that  seventeen  years  is  the 
extreme  limit  when  a  young  man  will  not 
try  to  satisfy  his  curiosity  on  these  delicate 


174  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

matters,  and  that  at  fifteen,  if  not  before,  he 
pressed  his  mother  or  his  confessor  for  more 
precise  knowledge,  does  the  problem  of  edu- 
cating to  purity  therefore  change  its  com- 
plexion?   It  does  not  seem  so. 

Indeed,  one  cannot,  a  priori,  assign  the  age 
or  the  exact  measure  of  necessary  revelations. 
What  is  certain  is  that,  made  by  a  mother  or 
a  confessor  in  whom  the  child  has  absolute 
confidence,  and  to  a  child  who  has  received 
an  integral  religious  education,  these  revela- 
tions do  not  bring  any  danger.  In  every  case 
they  mean  less  danger  than  a  prolonged  igno- 
rance, which,  to-day  or  to-morrow,  will  leave 
the  child  at  the  mercy  of  circumstances  and 
vicious  companions. 

Suppose  the  young  man  goes  to  the  univer- 
sity? Immediately  he  will  be  exposed  to  the 
influence  of  strong  spirits  who  will  take  a 
malignant  delight  in  enlightening  him.  My 
experience  of  university  life,  in  the  capacity 
of  a  teacher  of  young  men,  has  made  me  very 
sure  on  this  point. 

Suppose  he  goes  to  work?    The  absolute  or 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  175 

relative  promiscuity  of  the  sexes,  the  conver- 
sation of  comrades,  their  freedom  of  gesture 
and  language,  will  quickly  destroy  his  igno- 
rance and  forever  compromise  his  innocence. 

What  if  he  goes  on  a  farm,  or  into  service 
in  a  village,  or  clerks  in  a  big  firm  or  store? 
This  precocious  menial  condition  will  deliver 
him  up,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  the  most 
nefarious  influences — to  those  of  the  cellar 
during  the  day,  the  garret  at  night,  the  street 
during  hours  of  leisure. 

Hence  the  only  question  that  always  re- 
mains the  same  is:  Between  the  certain  dan- 
gers of  a  vicious  initiation  and  the  hypotheti- 
cal danger  of  a  healthy  initiation  has  one  the 
right  to  hesitate? 

I  have  said  nothing  as  yet  of  young  women 
of  the  world,  and  for  a  reason.  Is  it  not  ad- 
mitted, in  theory,  that  they  wish  to  know 
nothing  before  marriage,  and  that  one  ought 
not  to  trouble  their  peace? 

Before  such  a  prejudice  can  be  dissipated 
it  must  run  its  time.  The  facts,  however,  are 
all  against  such  a  position.     I  am  willing  to 


176  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

admit  that  young  women,  since  they  remain 
longer  than  young  men  under  the  protection 
of  the  home,  do  not  encounter  the  same  dan- 
gers. 

On  this  head  their  relative  ignorance  can 
be  prolonged.  But  are  not  our  actual  customs 
profoundly  at  variance  with  the  holiest  laws 
of  the  family?  Is  it  not  between  fifteen  and 
seventeen  years  of  age  that  young  women 
make  their  entrance  into  the  world? — and 
such  a  world!  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  at  all  en- 
tertainments and  sports  and  reunions,  all 
trips,  theatre  parties,  and  concerts,  young  men 
and  women  are  associated?  Is  it  not  true  that 
they  are  exposed  to  the  seeing,  hearing  and 
reading  of  everything?  Is  not  the  danger  of 
flirting,  thanks  to  the  worldly  usages  that  the 
majority  of  Christian  parents  feel  obliged  to 
follow,  constantly  close  to  them? 

Consequently,  is  it  better  to  leave  them  to 
themselves,  under  cover  of  ignorance  often 
more  feigned  than  real,  or,  before  launching 
them  into  society,  to  call  their  attention  to  cer- 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  177 

tain  delicate  points,  by  appealing  to  all  the 
resources  that  a  primary  Christian  education 
has  given  them?  I  leave  to  the  reader  the 
conclusion,  sure  in  advance,  if  he  is  not  the 
victim  of  prejudice,  that  he  will  decide  in 
favor  of  a  sane  and  progressive  initiation, 
made  to  each  particular  child  by  his  natural 
educators. 


III.     Positive  Education  in  Purity:  Collec- 
tive Method 

(1)  Moral  Education  of  Adolescence. — So 
far  we  have  only  spoken  of  the  individual 
method  of  educating  to  purity.  But  is  there 
not  room,  once  the  individual  education  is 
assured,  for  a  collective  education? 

Integral  education  in  purity,  then,  em- 
braces three  very  distinct  phases.  During  the 
first  period,  which  includes  childhood  prop- 
erly speaking  up  to  the  crisis  of  puberty,  the 
educators  concentrate  their  efforts  upon  the 
moral  preparation  of  the  child.  They  are  to 
be  occupied  entirely  with  the  formation  of 


178  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

his  will,  and  should  leave  his  intellect  in  igno- 
rance of  questions  concerning  chastity. 

During  the  second  phase,  which  extends 
throughout  the  crisis  of  puberty,  they  will  ap- 
ply themselves  to  making  the  child  pass  from 
negative  to  positive  innocence,  by  means  of  a 
common-sense  initiation,  whose  measure  and 
progress  will  be  governed  by  the  peculiar 
mentality  of  each  child  and  the  particular 
circumstances  under  which  his  need  of  know- 
ing is  manifested. 

The  third  period  embraces  adolescence 
proper.  This  period  includes  all  the  young 
men  and  women  whom  their  parents  and 
teachers  and  confessors  have  individually  ini- 
tiated into  the  mysteries  of  chastity  by  basing 
their  teaching  upon  an  integral  religious  edu- 
cation. It  is  only,  then,  for  such  young  men 
and  women  that  the  question  arises  whether 
it  would  be  well  to  complete  their  individual 
initiation  by  a  collective  moral  education. 

Let  the  reader  weigh  well  these  words: 
collective  moral  education.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion  here   of    collective  scientific   education. 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  179 

Such  an  education  implies  technical  teaching. 
Now  I  do  not  believe  it  would  be  easy  to 
form  a  group  of  young  men,  even  though 
serious,  who  would  apply  themselves  earnest- 
ly to  the  necessities  of  this  teaching.  There 
would  always  be  some  in  the  number  who,  in 
order  to  appear  before  the  others  as  less  chaste 
than  they  are  and  less  serious  than  they  ought 
to  be,  would  pun  upon  the  crudest  words  or 
turn  into  ridicule  the  most  circumstantial 
technical  details. 

Besides,  this  scientific  collective  education, 
where  the  technical  explanation  appears  on 
the  ground  floor,  is  not  necessary.  For  young 
people  already  individually  initiated,  a  moral 
education  suffices. 

But  what  would  it  embrace  and  what  ad- 
vantages are  to  be  gained  by  making  it  collec- 
tive?    This  remains  to  be  shown. 

The  collective  moral  education  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking  differs  essentially  from 
the  scientific  education  in  that  it  contains  no 
technical  or  direct  teaching  made  to  a  group 
concerning  the  problem  of  the  sexes.    There 


180  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

is  no  question  of  establishing,  for  the  use  of 
young  people  already  individually  initiated, 
a  course  in  medicine  or  gynecology,  but  sim- 
ply of  calling  their  attention,  in  appropriate 
lectures,  to  certain  social  prejudices  relative 
to  chastity  which  occur  in  the  different  sur- 
roundings in  which  they  will  be  thrown;  the 
dangers  of  a  certain  camaraderie  in  the  shop, 
at  the  university,  and  especially  where  the 
literary  and  athletic  customs  of  to-day  as- 
semble young  people;  the  injurious  influence 
of  bad  conversation,  of  romantic  or  gamy  lit- 
erature, of  theatres,  moving-pictures,  cafes, 
concerts,  gambling;  the  respect  due  to  all 
women,  no  matter  what  they  are;  the  nature 
and  impropriety  of  flirting;  the  disastrous 
consequences  of  immorality  from  the  individ- 
ual, family,  and  social  side;  the  possibility 
and  good  effects  of  chastity,  despite  the  ab- 
surd theories  whose  echo  will  have  reached 
even  them;  the  beauty  of  true  and  healthy 
love  such  as  the  Church  contemplates  in  mar- 
riage and  the  home;  the  Christian  atmosphere 
that  ought  to  surround  their  friendships;  the 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  181 

natural  and  supernatural  means  that  they 
ought  to  use  to  cultivate  in  themselves  the 
delicate  flower  of  purity,  and  to  make  its  per- 
fume exhale  around  them. 

This  programme,  as  one  sees,  is  at  the  same 
time  definite  and  vast.  To  realize  its  neces- 
sity, one  has  only  to  reflect  that  in  a  few 
months  these  young  people  will  leave  home 
or  college  and  find  themselves  in  a  completely 
different  environment,  where,  doubtless,  they 
will  be  well  surrounded,  whether  it  be  at  a 
university  or  elsewhere,  with  perfectly  organ- 
ized institutions,  but  free  to  enter  or  not,  and 
in  any  case  they  will  not  remain  more  than  an 
hour  or  so  a  week.  Left  to  themselves  be- 
tween times,  what  will  they  do  if  they  are  en- 
tirely ignorant  of  the  difficulties  attending 
them,  and  which  I  shall  point  out? 

And  even  if  they  were  for  a  long  time  con- 
versant with  these  difficulties  and  firmly  de- 
termined to  overcome  them,  they  do  not  know 
on  what  side  of  them  are  young  people  shar- 
ing the  same  ideas  and  asking  only  for  union 
in  order  to  support  the  struggle. 


182  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

That,  then,  is  why  it  is  advisable  that  such 
a  moral  education  should  have  a  collective 
character.  On  finding  themselves  in  the 
world,  in  the  shop,  the  university,  the  tech- 
nical school,  these  young  people,  nourished 
together  with  the  same  ideas,  leavened  with 
the  same  zeal,  will  instinctively  approach  each 
other,  and,  alongside  the  groups  of  pleasure- 
seekers  bent  merely  upon  amusement  and 
gathering  others  into  the  orbit  of  their  de- 
baucheries, will  form  other  groups,  big  and 
little,  which  will  have  no  other  aim  than  to 
guard  inviolate  their  virtue  and  to  make  it 
shine  forth  without  boasting,  but  with  firm- 
ness, in  their  conversation  and  conduct.  They 
will  assess  the  group  in  order  to  have  good 
books  and  recreative  and  improving  enter- 
tainments. Together  they  will  go  to  church, 
frequent  the  libraries,  the  lecture  halls,  the 
associations  of  young  people  that  priests  and 
zealous  and  intelligent  lay  folk  have  organ- 
ized for  our  youth. 

Should  any  one  say  that  this  collective 
moral  education  is  impossible,  is  it  not  the 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  183 

fault  of  the  educators  rather  than  of  the 
young  folks?  In  our  fairly  large  parishes, 
however,  and  even  in  our  villages,  but  espe- 
cially in  our  colleges,  it  will  not  be  difficult 
to  find  a  priest  capable  of  gathering  together 
the  elite  of  our  young  people,  and  organizing 
lectures  for  their  benefit.  There  will  be  less 
question  of  eloquence  than  of  speaking  from 
the  heart  and  with  the  authority  of  the  priest- 
hood, utilizing  intelligently  the  articles  and 
books,  so  numerous  to-day,  that  have  treated 
these  questions  from  a  frank  and  Christian 
point  of  view. 

The  problem  is  a  little  more  delicate  where 
our  young  women  are  concerned,  but  it  is  not 
more  insoluble  there.  I  know  a  boarding- 
school  where  the  chaplain  gathered  together 
the  oldest  of  the  last  year,  and  with  perfect 
tact,  without  entering  at  all  into  useless  tech- 
nical details,  seriously  prepared  them  to  meet 
the  world,  to  react  against  its  prejudices  and 
its  customs,  and  to  prepare  themselves  in  the 
light  of  the  foundation  and  organization  of  a 
home. 


1 84  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Under  these  conditions,  is  the  chastity  of 
adolescents  guaranteed  forever?  Assuredly 
not.  This  collective  moral  education  ought 
to  be  continued  wherever  it  is  possible  to  as- 
semble the  youth  of  the  schools,  of  the  work- 
aday world,  and  of  society.  But  on  this  point 
there  has  already  been  undertaken  much  ad- 
mirable work,  such  as  retreats  for  adult  men 
and  women;  retreats  for  workingmen;  study 
classes  for  young  men  and  women;  students' 
libraries,  lecture  halls,  courses  of  religious  in- 
struction, apologetic  lectures,  popular  moving 
pictures,  athletic  clubs  and  others  which,  if 
they  have  some  real  inconveniences,  at  least 
have  the  advantage  of  drawing  our  young 
people  for  some  hours  from  surroundings 
where  their  virtue  would  be  seriously  endan- 
gered. 

There  is  still  much  to  do,  but  the  impor- 
tant thing  is  that  notice  is  being  taken  and  a 
beginning  made.  Now  there  is  no  doubt  that 
we  are  as  observant  in  France  as  elsewhere. 
The  works  that  I  am  going  to  cite  show  faith, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  185 

and  it  is  proper  that  I  should  enumerate 
them  all. 

"In  many  factories,"  M.  Legrand  tells  us, 
"once  or  twice  a  week,  the  young  workers 
are  assembled  for  the  teaching  of  the  cate- 
chism, church  history,  and  religion.  Fre- 
quently for  the  women  it  is  a  religious,  the 
Sister  of  the  factory,  who  has  this  duty;  else- 
where it  is  the  wife  or  daughter  of  the  em- 
ployer; for  the  boys  it  is  often  the  chaplain 
of  the  village  institutions  or  the  curate  of 
the  parish.  The  course  is  optional,  but  it  is 
usually  well  attended.  .  .  .  There  are  also 
the  retreats  which  have  formed  an  elite  of 
Catholic  workingmen  and  workingwomen 
who  have  been  the  most  valuable  allies  of  the 
employers  in  improving  the  moral  tone  of 
the  factories. 

"For  three  or  four  years  this  method  has 
been  applied  to  the  young  workingmen.  As 
a  start  they  have  been  assembled  in  small 
groups  in  the  protectories  for  two  or  three 
days.  Almost  four  hundred  children  profited 
by  this  last  year.    Encouraged  by  the  success 


1 86  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

of  these  attempts,  it  is  planned  to  construct  a 
house  to  give  retreats  to  adolescents.  There 
will  issue  thence  an  elite  class  upon  which  we 
can  count  to  perfect  the  moral  formation  of 
their  comrades."  5 

We  have  already  remarked  that  in  Ger- 
many the  imperial  government  and  the  va- 
rious states  and  municipalities  have  applied 
themselves  to  organize  their  efforts  upon  the 
basis  of  a  thought-out  doctrinal  programme, 
of  which  we  have  quoted  the  negative  part. 
Here  are  the  positive  measures  that  are  prin- 
cipally recommended  for  the  struggle  against 
demoralizing  literature: 

"(a)  The  satisfaction  given  to  the  youthful 
imagination  by  a  healthy  literature  (in  the 
schools  and  public  libraries,  lecture  halls,  as- 
sociations of  young  people,  by  the  publication 
of  juveniles),  by  varied  bodily  exercise,  such 
as  walking,  sports,  games  and  manual  labor. 

"(b)  The  opposing  of  the  excessive  desire 
of  children  to  read,  by  exciting  to  physical 
exercises." 

(2)    /Esthetic    Education. — There    is    no 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  187 

manual  for  education  in  purity  that  does  not 
recommend  to  educators  the  withdrawal  from 
children  of  all  licentious  images,  insolent 
nudities,  and  pornographic  pictures.  One 
cannot,  indeed,  insist  too  much  upon  this  point 
in  our  age  of  shameless  literature  and  so- 
called  art.  But  how  can  one  guard  against 
all  dangers  in  this  field !  What  child  can  walk 
along  a  busy  street  without  having  his  atten- 
tion attracted  to  some  obscenity,  or  to  some 
shocking  reproduction  of  a  pretended  master- 
piece? If  children  wish  to  buy  post-cards, 
their  choice  must  be  made  in  the  presence  of 
more  or  less  immoral  views  exposed  in  the 
show-cases,  or  they  are  obliged  to  consult  al- 
bums containing  all  the  nudities  of  our  sa- 
lons. Despite  their  good  will,  their  most 
intimate  feelings  will  be  bruised  if  they  resist 
the  temptation  to  look,  or  wonderfully  trou- 
bled if  they  yield  for  the  slightest  moment  to 
an  unhealthy  curiosity. 

Besides,  it  is  not  only  shameless  post-cards 
that  at  one  time  or  another  may  compromise 
the  purity  of  children   and  of   adolescents. 


1 88  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

Are  not  our  galleries  and  museums  on  cer- 
tain days  open  to  all  ?  But  why  should  I  speak 
of  museums  and  galleries!  In  some  of  our 
churches,  in  many  of  our  cathedrals,  in  our 
most  famous  palaces,  in  our  public  parks,  are 
there  not  statues  and  groups  upon  which  the 
eyes  of  our  young  men  and  women  naturally 
fall?  Nevertheless,  it  would  not  occur  to 
any  one  to  remove  all  such  works,  or  to  for- 
bid children  to  gaze  upon  them. 

Hence  I  ask  if  the  means  of  lessening  this 
danger  of  the  eyes  be  not  early  to  teach  chil- 
dren carefully  to  guard  their  glances  and  to 
accustom  them  as  much  to  a  horror  of  ugliness 
as  of  evil,  and  to  a  love  of  the  beautiful  as 
well  as  of  the  good?  In  other  words,  I  ask  if 
in  our  programme  of  studies  we  cannot  in- 
troduce, with  the  secondary  object  of  protect- 
ing the  souls  of  our  children,  a  strong  aesthetic 
education? 

Let  no  one  distort  my  idea.  I  do  not  pre- 
tend for  a  moment  that  there  should  be  for 
children  a  complete  course  in  aesthetics,  where, 


INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE  189 

for  instance,  the  question  of  the  nude  in  art 
would  be  discussed  with  proofs. 

It  is  with  aesthetic  education  as  with  educa- 
tion in  purity.  To  make  it  efficient,  account 
must  be  taken  of  the  modesty  of  children  and 
of  the  peculiar  needs  of  each  age.  In  the  first 
phase  of  childhood  one  can,  without  too  much 
trouble,  awaken  in  them  the  taste  for  the 
beautiful  by  calling  their  attention  to  the  spec- 
tacles of  nature,  to  the  masterpieces  of  re- 
ligious art  which  throng  our  churches,  and 
whose  artistic  reproductions  are  now  within 
the  reach  of  the  whole  world. 

Later,  when  they  are  able  to  reflect,  it  will 
be  possible  to  show  them  that  there  is  a  way 
of  seeing  in  the  purest  masterpieces  of  reli- 
gious or  profane  art  something  else  than  the 
glorification  of  the  flesh. 

Is  there  not,  indeed,  a  real  danger  in  mak- 
ing adolescents  see  the  nude  only  under  an 
aspect  of  immorality?  Is  not  this  to  make  it  a 
fixed  idea  with  them,  so  that  they  will  con- 
sider their  morals  shattered  if  by  chance  a 


i9o  INNOCENCE  AND  IGNORANCE 

little  nudity  should  be  called  to  their  atten- 
tion? 

One  thing  is  certain,  it  is  necessary  to  ap- 
peal to  their  delicacy  of  soul,  to  their  love  of 
virtue,  to  keep  them  from  exposing  themselves 
to  temptation  out  of  gaiety  of  heart.  But  if 
this  strong  moral  education  has  been  com- 
pleted by  a  serious  aesthetic  study,  do  we  not 
in  advance  guarantee  many  of  our  young 
people  against  vain  scruples,  and,  what  is 
more  important,  against  the  instinctive  ten- 
dency to  seek  after  "forbidden  fruit"? 

We  shall  say  no  more  on  this  point.  The 
question  has  not  yet  been  settled,  and  it  is  full 
of  difficulties.  But  when  the  purity  of  chil- 
dren is  at  stake  we  ought  to  spare  no  pains 
in  helping  them  to  furbish  their  weapons  in 
the  battle  for  the  Ideal,  and  to  show  all  the 
valor  of  honorable  and  Christian  men. 

1  La  Reforme  Sociale,  Paris,  191 1,  1-16  aout,  p.  129. 

2  Id.,  aout,    191 1,  p.   153. 

3  Id.,   16  Octobre,    191 1,  pp.  435  et  seq. 

4  Id.,  pp.  433-442. 

B  Id.,  pp.  439,  44L 


"Life  is  too  short  for  reading  inferior  books." — Bryce 


Clean  literature  and  clean  womanhood  are 
the  keystones  of  civilization — and 

MY 
UNKNOWN  CHUM 

("AGUECHEEK") 
Foreword  by  HENRY  GARRITY 

"is  the  cleanest  and  best  all-round  book  in 
the  English  Language" 

"An  Ideal  Chum."  You  will  read  it  often  and  like  it  better 
the  oftener  you  read  it — once  read  it  will  be  your  chum  as 
it  is  now  the  chum  of  thousands.  You  will  see  France, 
Belgium,  England,  Italy  and  America — men  and  women  in 
anew  light  that  has  nought  to  do  with  the  horrors  of  war. 
It  fulfills  to  the  letter  Lord  Rosebery's  definition  of  the 
threefold  function  of  a  book— "To  furnish  Information, 
Literature,  Recreation." 


What  critical  book-lovers  say: 

SIR  CHARLES  FITZPATRICK,  Chief  Justice  of  Canada:  '"My  Unknown 
Chum'  is  a  wonderful  book.  I  can  repeat  some  of  the  pages  almost  by 
heart.  I  buy  it  to  give  to  those  I  love  and  to  friends  who  can  appreciate 
a  good  book." 

THE  N.  Y.  SUN:  "They  don't  write  such  English  nowadays.  The  book  is 
charming. " 

PHILIP  GIBBS,  most  brilliant  of  the  English  war  correspondents:  '"My 
Unknown  Chum'  is  delightful." 


Price,  $1.50  net.     Postpaid,  $1.65 

THE     DEVIN-ADAIR     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 

437  Fifth  Avenue  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


"Men  are  Nothing,  but  a  MAN  is  Everything." 

— Napoleon. 

Books  Are  Nothing,  But  a 
Good  Book  Is  Everything 

Youth  ripening  into  manhood  or  womanhood  will  find  MY 
UNKNOWN  CHUM  the  best  of  comrades  all  through 
life.  Preachy?,  <Not  a  bit  of  it!  He  is  a  delightful  chum 
who  introduces  you  to  about  all  that  is  worth  while.  He 
will  go  with  you  to  the  theatre — take  you  behind  the  scenes 
if  you  like,  tell  you  about  the  art,  the  soul  of  the  playhouse, 
with  never  a  word  or  thought  of  the  sensualistic  rubbish 
that  features  only  the  flesh-mummer,  her  toothbrush  bril- 
liancy and  the  stage  door — that  leads  to  so  many  family 
scandals,  domestic  wreckage  and  divorce. 

J.  A.  JUDD,  of  the  Literary  Digest: 

"I  love  books.  I  love  my  library,  in  which  are  more  than  three  hundred 
of  the  world's  best  works.  If  driven  by  adversity  to  a  hall  bedroom,  I 
could  select  five  books  that  would  supply  me  with  delightful  reading  matter 
for  the  remainder  of  my  days — the  first  would  be  'My  Unknown  Chum.'  " 

CARDINAL  GASQUET,  the  world's  for etnost  scholar: 

"I  have  read  'My  Unknown  Chum'  with  the  preatest  possible  pleasure." 

GOVERNOR  DAVID  I.  WALSH,  of  Massachusetts: 

"  'My  Unknown  Chum' — I  cannot  too  strongly  express  the  pleasure 
and  companionship  I  found  in  this  excellent  book.  It  is  all  that  is  claimed 
for  it — even  more.    It  is  not  only  a  companion,  but  a  friend." 

ALICE  M.  BRADLEY,  author  of  the  Belasco  production— 
"The  Governor's  Lady": 

"The  title,  'My  Unknown  Chum,'  most  aptly  describes  the  book.  It  is 
a  chum,  a  confidant,  with  old-time  manners  and  all-time  observation  and 
philosophy.  He  takes  you  with  him  and  delights  you.  What  delicious 
humor!" 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY— the  largest  whole- 
sale booksellers: 

"'My  Unknown  Chum' is  a  wonderful  book — appeals  to  the  cultivated 
classes — has  a  remarkable  sale.  We  sell  more  copies  than  we  do  of  many 
•best  selling'  novels." 


"Were  people  in  general  not  willing  accomplices, 
there  would  be  No  Sweating  System — no  unfair 
Competition,  and  no  oppression  of  the  kind  that 
leads  to  White  Slavery  " 


CONSUMERS  M2 
WAGE  EARNERS 

The  Ethics  of  Buying  Cheap 
By  J.  ELLIOT  ROSS,  Ph.D. 

i- 

An  exposure  of  the  vice-compelling  unjust  wages  of 
these  troublous  times — and  a  solution.  This  is  a  book 
that  should  be  read  by  every  buyer,  every  seller,  every 
consumer  and  every  wage  earner.  It  should  be  studied 
carefully  by  fathers  and  mothers  who  have  children  that 
must  work. 

THESE  VITAL  PROBLEMS 
ARE  ANALYZED: 

Obligations  of  the  Consuming  Class 

What  Should  the  Individual  Consumer  Do? 

What  Is  a  Just  Employer? 

Theory  of  Industrial  Organization 

Industrial  Conditions — Wages,  Health,  Morals 


Price  $1.00  net— $1.15  Postpaid 


THE   DEVIN-ADAIR   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Ready  Soon! 


THE   RIGHT 
TO  WORK 

BY 
J.  ELLIOT  ROSS,  Ph.D. 


THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


' 


/ 


./ 


«r 


J 


RETURN 
T0^+> 


CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

202  Main  Library 


/ 


3237 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

JUN  17  1989 

MAY  i  4  \W 

FORM  NO.  DD6 


S 


S 


S 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


